This article was first published on April 22, updated the KAIO tokenomics section on April 30, and updated the TGE section on May 6.
On May 6, KAIO announced on X platform that the TGE would take place today at 21:00 Beijing time. In addition, Coinbase announced its support for KAIO (KAIO). Exchanges such as Bitget, Gate, and KuCoin will also list KAIO, and Bitget Launchpool will feature KAIO.
On April 30, asset tokenization protocol KAIO officially revealed the utility and governance tokenomics of its KAIO token, and simultaneously announced the establishment of the KAIO Foundation as the ecosystem's off-chain manager responsible for supporting token governance, protocol development, financial management, and ecosystem growth.
According to the official disclosure, the KAIO token follows a fixed total supply model with a total supply of 10 billion tokens and no inflationary issuance. In the allocation scheme, the community and liquidity incentives hold the largest share at 37.5%, with 12.5% unlocking on the TGE (Token Generation Event) day for liquidity provision. Early investors receive 31%, the foundation receives 17%, the team receives 11%, and an additional 3.5% is allocated for Pre-TGE sales.
Regarding the unlocking rules, the team and investor shares are fully locked on TGE day with a 12-month vesting period, followed by a linear unlock over 24 months. The remaining portion of the community and liquidity is subject to a 6-month lockup, followed by a 60-month linear release. The foundation's share is also subject to a 6-month lockup, with a complete release over 36 months.
The token's core utility covers four aspects: serving as an access mechanism to KAIO protocol products, protocol revenue capture linked to the protocol's total locked value growth, potential future staking and reward functions, and governance voting rights on key protocol decisions and fund allocations.
The retail user-focused all-in-one yield product KASH is set to launch in the second quarter of 2026 and has opened its application portal. Currently, apart from the KASH application channel, KAIO has not announced any other token acquisition methods or loyalty programs.
On April 20, 2026, KAIO, an asset tokenization infrastructure company overseen by the Abu Dhabi Global Market, announced the completion of an $8 million strategic funding round. The round was led by stablecoin issuer Tether, with participation from Systemic Ventures, Further Ventures, and Laser Digital, a subsidiary of Nomura Securities.
Following this funding injection, KAIO's total funding reached $19 million. The company stated that the new funds would be used to expand its business scope from existing fund tokenization services to a wider range of asset classes, including credit products, structured investment tools, and exchange-traded fund platform transactions.
Meanwhile, KAIO also announced a key partnership plan to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, an alternative asset management firm under the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company.
Notably, this is the first publicly known instance of Tether acting as a lead investor in an external asset tokenization infrastructure company. This move clearly signals the stablecoin giant's strategic shift from internal development to direct investment in the real-world asset space.
Focus on On-chain Fund Infrastructure for Institutions
KAIO is an infrastructure provider that has built a protocol layer for real-world assets, formerly known as Libre Capital. The company aims to address the compliance, liquidity, and interoperability challenges faced by regulated institutional funds in a decentralized financial environment by constructing a sovereign app chain.
Its core focus is to fully transition traditional institutional funds onto the blockchain track. In its business model, KAIO does not directly issue assets but provides technical infrastructure to large asset management firms, enabling them to distribute fund products on-chain through compliant tokenization structures.
The currently deployed fund products come from institutions such as BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane and are deployed on multiple blockchain networks like Sui, Solana, and Base.
According to company disclosures, the KAIO platform has processed over $500 million in transaction volume to date, with tokenized assets totaling around $100 million. The key to its business model lies in meeting regulatory requirements in jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands and Singapore through automated rules embedded in on-chain code.
Ensuring strict compliance, the platform has significantly reduced the investment threshold for institutional-grade funds to a minimum of $100 for eligible investors to participate.
As part of the product matrix expansion, KAIO introduced a yield-bearing token product called KASH in February this year. This product utilizes the KAIO protocol to tokenize a blue-chip fund portfolio from leading global asset management firms such as BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, and Laser Digital into a diversified tokenized basket. The application portal is now open.
Team Background
The leadership team at KAIO has a blended background in traditional finance and digital assets. CEO Shrey Rastogi, an alumnus of London Business School, previously worked at McKinsey, focusing on research and consulting in capital market infrastructure before joining KAIO.
COO Olivier Dang, with over a decade of experience at Nomura Securities, served as the Head of Venture Investments and a board member at Nomura's digital asset subsidiary, Laser Digital.
This background has positioned him as a key figure in connecting KAIO with the mainstream financial institutional ecosystem. Overall, the team presents a professional profile consisting of former McKinsey consultants, Nomura Securities executives, and senior smart contract developers.
Tether's Strong Backing and Strategic Intent
As the lead investor in this funding round, Tether's strategic move is closely tied to its growing market presence. Just after KAIO's funding announcement on April 22, Tether's stablecoin USDT reached a market capitalization of around $188 billion, hitting a new all-time high.
Simultaneously, according to DeFiLlama data, the total market capitalization of global stablecoins also surpassed the $320 billion mark for the first time, indicating a rapid expansion in market demand for on-chain liquidity.
Regarding asset reserves, as per Tether's latest attestation report as of the end of 2025, its total reserve assets amounted to approximately $192.88 billion, with USDT-related liabilities of around $186.54 billion. An excess reserve buffer of about $6.4 billion ensures that all circulating USDT is overcollateralized.
The core components of the reserve are U.S. Treasury bonds and repurchase agreements, accounting for over 70%. Additionally, Tether recorded a net profit of over $10 billion throughout 2025, providing a solid financial foundation for its strategic investments.
Regarding its plan to introduce USDT liquidity into regulated investment products, the potential targets may include BlackRock's money market fund tokenized through the KAIO platform, private credit strategies fund, and future expansion into structured products and ETF shares. This move theoretically would introduce a significant amount of on-chain native capital to traditional financial markets.
The partner in this collaboration, Mubadala Capital, is an alternative asset management subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company, with the parent company managing assets worth $385 billion, experiencing a 17% growth by 2025, making it the world's 15th largest sovereign wealth fund.
Its notable portfolio includes investments in North American industrial laundry system Alliance Laundry System, European luxury hotel group Aman Hotels, and Indian tech platform Reliance Jio Platforms, among others.
Although Mubadala Capital's portfolio has traditionally focused on alternative assets, starting in 2025, it has actively explored the tokenization of real-world assets. In December 2025, it announced a partnership with KAIO to explore the on-chain compliant tokenization of Mubadala Capital's private market strategies (private equity, real estate, etc.), providing institutional and accredited investors digital access. They also plan to launch on-chain funds to lower the investment threshold and increase liquidity.
Competitive Landscape and Differentiation
In the current real-world asset race, KAIO faces competition from various mature infrastructure providers.
Leading institutional tokenization platform Securitize directly services BlackRock's BUIDL fund, with a total tokenized asset size exceeding $4 billion, raising approximately $132 million, with lead investments from BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, among others. It announced a SPAC merger IPO in 2025, with an estimated valuation of $1.25 billion.
DeFi-native infrastructure Centrifuge focuses on institutional-grade RWA infrastructure (including fund tokenization), achieving compliance through an SPV legal structure, and attaining DeFi liquidity through NFT/token pools (integrated with Aave, MakerDAO, etc.). It has tokenized Janus Henderson Treasury Fund (JTRSY), CLO funds, among others, aligning closely with KAIO's utility.
According to DeFiLlama data, Centrifuge currently has a TVL of approximately $19.9 billion. Its token CFG has a FDV of around $168 million and is listed on exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, and Upbit.
Despite facing strong competition, KAIO has established a unique positioning in the Middle East and Asian compliant digital asset market, leveraging its sovereign application chain architecture, deep integration into the Abu Dhabi Global Market regulatory ecosystem, and exclusive partnerships with Mubadala Capital to launch on-chain funds.
Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:
Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App
Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
