KAITO

The History of KAITO

KAITO was founded in 2022 by Yu Hu, a Cambridge University graduate and the CEO of the Seattle, Washington-based company. A former hedge fund manager at Citadel, Yu Hu leveraged his experience in financial markets and data analysis to address the challenges of information overload and fragmentation in the cryptocurrency sector. His vision was to create a platform that could help investors, developers, and enthusiasts make more informed decisions.

The Kaito team includes former Citadel money managers, AI engineering experts from Silicon Valley, academic researchers, and experienced blockchain developers.

In its early stages, KAITO focused on developing its core technology – an AI-powered vertical search engine for aggregating and analyzing information in the cryptocurrency space.

As the technology continued to improve, in December 2024, KAITO launched the Yaps program – an open and permissionless system that allows users to earn Yap points by sharing valuable information and mentioning Kaito on the X platform. This became a key pillar for the KAITO airdrop.

February 2025 marked a major milestone in KAITO's development. On February 20, $KAITO was simultaneously listed on several major exchanges, sending a wave through the cryptocurrency market. After the listing, the token's price showed strong upward momentum in a short period, at one point breaking the $2 mark.

Startup Development. Funding and Community Support.

On August 17, 2023, Kaito raised $5.3 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital China, Jane Street, Mirana Ventures, Folius Ventures, Alpha Lab Capital, and others. The funds were used to expand the team and accelerate product development.

On June 22, 2023, Kaito raised $5.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Superscript and Spartan Group, resulting in a valuation of $87.5 million. The funds were allocated to the development of a search engine that combines large language models (LLMs) with real-world data from various sources, including social media, governance forums, and industry research.

Large language models (LLMs) are a type of machine learning model designed for natural language processing (NLP) tasks such as text generation, translation, summarization, and question answering. They have become an important part of the development of artificial intelligence (AI), especially with the popularity of generative AI, and are actively used in various industries, from business to science.

The project quickly attracted the attention of venture capital, conducting two funding rounds at valuations of $40 million and $87.5 million, raising a total of $10.8 million.

What is Kaito AI?

X Kaito

Kaito is an innovative AI-powered crypto project aimed at solving the problems of information overload and fragmentation in the cryptocurrency space. As a new Web3 information platform, Kaito uses advanced AI technologies to aggregate and process cryptocurrency information from various channels, providing users with high-quality, real-time market insights.

In simple terms, KAITO is like an AI-powered compass for the world of cryptocurrencies, helping you find truly valuable content in an ocean of information while ensuring that every participant receives a fair return through an innovative economic model.

What problems is KAITO AI designed to solve?

Information Fragmentation

Information about cryptocurrencies is scattered across countless platforms, including social media, governance forums, news sites, and more, making it nearly impossible for users to gain a comprehensive understanding of the industry's development. KAITO solves this problem by indexing thousands of data sources and consolidating this disparate information into a single platform.

Information Overload

Faced with vast amounts of information, ordinary users struggle to extract anything of value. KAITO uses advanced artificial intelligence models to filter out the noise and extract key points, allowing users to quickly access important content.

Unfair Distribution of Attention

On traditional platforms, the rewards for content creators are disproportionate to the value they create, and users' attention is not reasonably compensated. Through its InfoFi network, KAITO has created a more fair, transparent, and efficient attention economy model.

Search Engine Limitations

Search engines like Google are not sufficient for providing high-quality and reliable information about cryptocurrencies. KAITO has developed a vertical search engine specifically for the cryptocurrency domain, ensuring more accurate results.

By addressing these challenges, KAITO AI aims to become the knowledge hub for the Web3 world, helping investors, developers, and enthusiasts make more informed decisions while creating a new ecosystem capable of fairly distributing attention and capital.

How KAITO Works: Key Features of Kaito AI: Kaito Portal, Kaito Yap, and Kaito API

InfoFi (Information Finance)

To understand Kaito, it's worth first understanding the Information Finance (InfoFi) model, which treats information itself as a financial instrument.

The distribution of attention in today's market is inefficient at best, and deeply unfair at worst:

Inefficiency

•Social networks often create echo chambers that lead to a suboptimal allocation of attention.

•Platform algorithms can be biased or imperfect.

•Algorithm-based attention allocation may be inferior to other alternatives, such as market systems, which are closer to the source of truth.

Injustice

•Creators receive only a small fraction of the value they generate directly from the platform.

•Users drive the demand that fuels this economy but remain unrewarded for their time and engagement.

•Platforms not only accumulate most of the value but also dictate the flow of attention and value without accountability or transparency, due to a significant power imbalance (e.g., account suspensions can be made solely at the platform's discretion).

What are echo chambers?Echo chambers are situations where social media users are surrounded by information and opinions that align with their existing beliefs and are rarely exposed to alternative views. It's like being in a room where everyone around you agrees, and you don't hear other opinions.

This is where InfoFi comes in: it allows market forces to determine where attention should be directed. By introducing market forces, this approach has two main advantages:

•Efficiency: Market systems have proven to be more effective in bringing the world closer to the source of truth - for example, the role of Polymarket in the 2024 US elections.

•Decentralization and Fairness: Because market forces are driven by the collective actions of creators and users, this approach also reduces reliance on platform algorithms and facilitates a more equitable, trustless redistribution of value across the network.

KAITO combines artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to create a completely new InfoFi ecosystem, helping users get high-quality information about cryptocurrencies while rethinking the distribution of value in the attention economy.

Kaito Portal

Kaito Portal is the main interface.

(It is likely that there was a rebranding and the kaito portal tab was replaced with pro)

Here, Kaito simply organizes hard-to-find information, structured into easily applicable ideas in record time. It then uses advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to process and analyze this information.

This portal provides users with a full suite of tools to search, track, and analyze various tickers, topics, and narratives from thousands of sources. This will reduce the time spent on manual research and increase efficiency. In addition, thanks to metasearch, sentiment tracking, smart alerts, and other features, smarter and faster decisions will be made based on up-to-date data.

Kaito Connect

Kaito Connect acts as a central hub for various products, including Kaito Pro (for search) and Kaito Yaps (for social media analysis), and aims to become a cross-platform InfoFi layer connecting brands, users, and creators in a decentralized and transparent environment.

KAITO Connect integrates everything into the InfoFi network. This network uses market forces to determine how attention and capital are distributed, creating a more fair and transparent system. Through Yapper Leaderboards and Yapper Launchpad, creators and users can directly participate in deciding which content and topics deserve attention. Kaito Connect rewards users for their contributions.

The core principles of Kaito Connect are:

•Fairness

•Democratizing access: Leveling the playing field. Participants do not need to be influencers - anyone can participate in the network.

•Value redistribution: Participants are directly involved in the redistribution of attention and thus receive a fairer share of the value through the redistribution of power.

•Transparency

•Transparency between brands and creators/users: Rewards for both creators and users are transparent on the chain.

•Transparency between creators and users: Due to the nature of open leaderboards, creators automatically disclose the sponsored nature of any content.

•Efficiency

•No intermediaries: No traditional agencies or any other third parties involved.

•Merit- and performance-based: Content with greater impact receives higher rewards.

The main components of the platform include Yaps (as Proof-of-Attention), Yapper Leaderboards, and Yapper Launchpad (this is discussed later in the article).

Basically, Kaito Connect interacts with content creators, users, brands, and networks. The project aims to stimulate user participation, as well as provide fairer payments to content creators, transparent fees, and achievement-based rewards for brands.

Kaito Pro

Kaito Pro is a vertical AI-powered search engine for information aggregation, created specifically for the cryptocurrency industry, and KAITO's most mature product. It helps users quickly access real-time operational information from the world of cryptocurrencies by indexing thousands of information sources (a massive data indexing system).

KAITO automatically crawls and indexes cryptocurrency-related information from various channels, including social media (such as X, Discord), news platforms, governance forums, blog posts, board reports, research papers, and even podcasts and conference recordings. Thus, users do not need to switch between multiple platforms and can access all the information they need in one place.

Using Kaito Pro, you can:

•Instantly search for any ticker, topic, or trend across thousands of high-quality Web3 information sources using the MetaSearch feature.

•Understand changes in market sentiment and their driving factors with sentiment analysis functions.

•Create custom alerts and dashboards to track tokens, projects, or narratives in real time.

•Quantitatively and objectively track changes in attention in the market or in specific areas with token attention analysis.

•Systematically track narrative rotation and understand the momentum of existing narratives using narrative attention tools.

•Stay informed about important events such as tokenomics changes, unlocks, and governance voting with the catalyst calendar.

•Get access to all podcasts and meeting recordings with AI-based summaries for quick understanding.

Kaito Pro has become a leading intelligent platform in the cryptocurrency space, widely used by most crypto teams, researchers, and investors, supporting over 500 investment, marketing, and growth teams.

Kaito Pro simplifies access to useful cryptocurrency information with its own search algorithms, large language model (LLM), and real-time analytics.

To access all features, you need to purchase a paid subscription.

MetaSearch

MetaSearch is a vertical search platform, a powerful search engine with access to thousands of premium Web3 resources. It has comprehensive data coverage. It doesn't just find things; it organizes relevant and rare data into actionable data. This data ranges from tokens to crypto topics or current trends among thousands of premium Web3 resources.

Users can click on the search icon to access all possible projects and their staggering data, organized in an easily digestible format. This also helps users fully understand the market because they get the full picture without blind spots.

Metasearch can instantly aggregate, sort, and organize cryptocurrency-related information from social platforms, publishing platforms, industry research, and news sites.

Sentiment Analytics

Imagine being able to track, to some extent, the general mood and feelings of investors. Sentiment tracking does this. It tracks and analyzes the overall market sentiment from various sources, allowing users to understand trends and changes in the market. This component is important for making informed investment and marketing decisions.

This means that users can predict market trends and price fluctuations with some degree of confidence. This feature is an AI-powered analytics tool that helps users gain valuable insights into the changing market sentiment.

Real-time Smart Alerts

With the "Real-time Smart Alerts" feature, monitoring has become easier than ever. The user can set up real-time notifications for any project, topic, keyword, event, or sentiment change. This will allow them to stay up-to-date with the latest events and stay ahead of new opportunities.

This provides users with timely but relevant information about the parts of the market that interest them.

Dashboard & Feeds

Customized Watchlists and Dashboards

Here, everything the user interacts with is displayed in a comprehensive view. It contains information from mindshare, sentiment tracker, screener, calendar, and much more.

Here, the user can track everything from government proposals to upcoming events and current sentiment on one screen. With this feature, the user is in control. They simply reorder their feed to reflect their current interests and needs.

Token & Narrative Mindshare

It's no secret that the web3 space is oversaturated with useless noise, which can be overwhelming and make it difficult to keep track of current events. The Token mindshare feature helps the user track how much attention different tokens are receiving over time.

This means they are studying what is gaining popularity and what is losing it. On the other hand, the ability to influence consciousness helps them track stories and trends in the world of Web3, providing valuable ideas for better investment and strategic decisions.

Catalyst Calendar

If users want to have a predictive superpower to predict market-moving events, then the Catalyst Calendar is their go-to tool. It tracks and displays important upcoming events such as token unlocks, airdrops, and major announcements. This helps users stay ahead of the curve and make proactive decisions.

Audio Library

The audio library provides access to unpublished podcasts and closed conferences with brief summaries from TLDR. This feature allows users to get information in audio format, which makes it convenient and user-friendly.

AI Copilot (The Smartest Crypto AI)

KAITO uses advanced artificial intelligence technologies to process data. A regular search can only give you raw information, but KAITO's AI is capable of much more. It uses large language models for content analysis and understanding, extracting key ideas, filtering out irrelevant information, and ranking information for relevance. This means you don't just get information, you get valuable insights that have been filtered and organized.

For a better understanding of all the functions, you can get a paid subscription for a convenient plan for you, or watch short demo videos (on the Kaito website) on how the functions work.

Kaito Yaps

Yaps (Tokenized Attention System)

Traditionally, attention has been measured by superficial metrics such as clicks, views, and impressions. Although these parameters are easy to track and control, they do not reflect real engagement.

Kaito Yaps is a feature that uses AI to analyze semantic signals and social graphs to quantitatively assess the popularity of different methods (not just through likes and views).

KAITO has created a tokenized attention mechanism through the Yaps system. This is one of KAITO's most innovative features. Users can earn Yap points as a reward by sharing valuable cryptocurrency knowledge on the X platform and tagging KAITO. Kaito Yaps is an innovative product in the KAITO ecosystem that turns "attention" into a non-material asset - in quantitatively measurable tokens that can be considered the voice of users and a recognition of content. The Yaps system not only rewards content creators but also provides a standard for measuring value for the entire ecosystem, stimulating the creation of high-quality content and providing a new standard for evaluating its influence. Yaps evaluates the volume of content, engagement, and analytics for a more accurate measurement of popularity.

Yap points can be used for various purposes, including:

•Serving as the basis for the development of SocialFi

•Distribution of rewards

•Measuring community contribution

This tokenized popularity model supports SocialFi initiatives and the distribution of rewards. Kaito is at the intersection of social networks and decentralized finance (DeFi), where users can monetize social interactions and content, as well as manage them through systems based on blockchain.

Yapper Leaderboards

Previously, brands working with content creators relied on intermediary recommendations and subjective metrics to assess creator influence. Payments were often processed in advance due to the lack of effective methods, which did not encourage stimulus.

Yapper Leaderboards provide a publicly available ranking system based on merit and performance, demonstrating the influence of creators with verifiable proof of their results.

What is ranking?Ranking is the process of sorting elements (e.g., people, posts, products) in a specific order based on given criteria, such as popularity, relevance, or influence.

Publicly accessible monitoring panels rank participants based on their contribution and popularity.

Yapper Launchpad

Yapper Launchpad is a platform that allows projects to launch campaigns and reward creators and users who contribute to their growth. This creates a direct and transparent relationship between projects and their communities.

Kaito API

Kaito API provides programmatic access to Kaito's data and analytics. This allows developers to integrate Kaito's features into their own applications and services.

Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC)

What is EthCC on the Kaito Portal?

On the Kaito Portal, EthCC is presented as a conference for which Kaito provides open transcripts and AI-generated analytics. Kaito describes itself as an "AI-powered information terminal" that revolutionizes access to information in Web3.

Specifically, Kaito uses its proprietary Speech-To-Text (STT) model to process data from EthCC, allowing users to quickly and freely access key developments and insights from the conference. This includes transcripts of speeches, panel discussions, and other events, as well as AI-generated analytics to simplify the understanding of key points.

What is a Speech-To-Text (STT) model?A Speech-To-Text (STT) model is an artificial intelligence (AI) based technology that converts spoken language into written text. It analyzes audio recordings, recognizes words and phrases, and then converts them into a text format.

Tokenomics of $KAITO. The $Kaito Token (KAITO)

Introduction to $KAITO

$KAITO is the native token of the Kaito ecosystem, which functions on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token. It provides market incentives and acts as a network currency that gives holders governance rights, and also plays a key role in transactions and the distribution of attention within the network. $KAITO is not just a medium of exchange within the platform, but also a fundamental building block of the InfoFi (Information Finance) network, managed by Kaito's artificial intelligence.

General Token Information

•Name and Symbol: The token is called KAITO, the symbol is $KAITO.

•Total Supply: 1,000,000,000 KAITO (1 billion).

•Circulating Supply: As of the latest update (April 2025) - 241,388,889 KAITO, which is 24.14% of the total supply.

Token Distribution

The total supply of $KAITO is 1 billion tokens, which is fixed and will not be increased. The token distribution is as follows:

Token Utility

KAITO's economic model is aimed at stimulating participation and ecosystem growth.

$KAITO has several key functions within the ecosystem.

•Network Currency: Used as the primary currency for transactions within the KAITO platform, facilitating interaction between users and projects.

•Community Governance: Participants holding $KAITO can participate in voting and decision-making on the development of the protocol, which ensures decentralized governance.

•Attention Distribution: The token is used to influence the distribution of attention within the InfoFi network, which helps determine which projects or content receive priority through mechanisms such as the Yapper Launchpad.

•Incentives: Through programs like Yaps, users can earn points that can be linked to the distribution of $KAITO. For example, the Yaps program rewards users for creating valuable content on social media, especially on the X platform, which encourages participation.

It is especially noteworthy that staking $KAITO gives the right to vote, allowing participation in decision-making on the management of the platform, which not only encourages long-term ownership but also ensures that token holders can actively participate in the development of the platform.

Unlock (Airdrop) and Vesting Schedule

At the time of the token release (February 20, 2025), approximately 24.14% of the tokens (241 million) were put into circulation to balance the deficit and market liquidity.

The remaining tokens will be gradually released in accordance with a special unlocking schedule.

•Vesting: For some categories of tokens, such as Core Contributors, Early Backers, and Foundation, a vesting schedule is provided that regulates the gradual unlocking of tokens over time. However, the exact schedule was not available without authorization on the Tokenomist.ai platform, according to the data (Tokenomist.ai - data on KAITO tokenomics).

•Airdrop: An airdrop has already been conducted or is planned to distribute tokens to the community, including the Binance Holder Airdrop program, which is part of the user acquisition strategy.

Criticism and Controversial Points

Despite the well-thought-out model, there are some controversies:

•Insider Allocation: About 43.3% of the tokens (35% for the team and 8.3% for early investors) are allocated to internal participants, which has raised concerns about token concentration.

•Transparency: Some users criticize the complexity of the Yaps system and the incomplete transparency in the distribution of rewards, which may affect community trust.

Risk Analysis

Advantages

Kaito collects information from various sources, including social media and discussion forums, news, and scientific articles. This extensive collection gives users access to vast data, enabling data-driven decisions in the cryptocurrency sphere. Although this amount of information may seem overwhelming, the platform uses advanced artificial intelligence technologies, such as chatbots, to process and analyze this unstructured information. Thus, users receive actionable recommendations without being overloaded.

Finally, you can track specific information, set alarms as needed, and receive timely notifications. This way, investors stay informed about market trends, which is important for making timely investment decisions in a rapidly changing environment.

Disadvantages

The truth is that the quality and effectiveness of Kaito's artificial intelligence largely depend on the reliability of the available data. Since people are prone to falsifying information, misinformation and bias can affect Kaito. This can lead to poor decisions, which is bad for users.

In addition, the cost of a subscription to the platform is relatively high. Individual users are charged 0.25 ETH ($833) per month, and the multi-user fee is even higher.

Furthermore, given the vast amount of data tracked and the enormous functionality of Kaito, its interface will not be completely beginner-friendly. This means a learning curve, which may deter potential users from fully utilizing the features.

Challenges

First, like most innovative areas, the web3 space is becoming increasingly crowded with competitors offering similar services. This means that Kaito.ai must constantly innovate to maintain its market advantage.

Second, as a platform operating in the cryptocurrency sector, Kaito faces potential regulatory challenges that could affect user trust.

Finally, with increasing demand, Kaito will have to increase its infrastructure to scale properly, and this may become a challenge in the near future.

Competitive Analysis

Kaito Ai and The Graph are both platforms aimed at improving the accessibility of information in the web3 ecosystem.

Kaito has an advanced compilation of data from a vast web3 source, including social media and podcasts. Moreover, it equips its users with real-time analytics and artificial intelligence to help make informed decisions.

On the other hand, The Graph is a decentralized information protocol. Simply put, it organizes and searches for information using the blockchain. This means that instead of relying on a central authority, it uses a network of nodes.

Kaito has clarified its target audience for large investors, researchers, and developers in the crypto space. The main target audience of The Graph is developers looking for effective ways to access blockchain data.

Kaito is also positioned as a detailed but easily navigable platform for diverse web3 content. While The Graph is the leading decentralized list of solutions to developers' data problems when creating dApps.

Finally, Kaito offers a wider range of content that goes beyond blockchain transactions, from social media to sentiment analysis. The Graph, on the other hand, specializes in enabling developers to query data with customizable APIs.

What benefits can KAITO bring?

For ordinary investors and crypto-newcomers:

For beginners who are just entering the world of cryptocurrencies, KAITO is like a crypto consultant on hand to help you find your way in a complex information environment and make more informed decisions.

1.More efficient information gathering: No more switching between multiple platforms in search of information. KAITO centralizes thousands of sources of cryptocurrency information in one place, which significantly saves your time and energy.

2.Reduced information anxiety: Faced with complex market information, KAITO's artificial intelligence can filter out trivial information, provide key points and conclusions, helping you not to be overwhelmed by irrelevant information.

3.Smarter investment decisions: By receiving high-quality, comprehensive market analysis, you can make more informed investment decisions, rather than relying solely on social media hype or emotions.

4.Timely capture of market opportunities: KAITO's real-time information update feature will help you instantly understand market changes and seize potential investment opportunities.

For content creators:

1.Fair remuneration: Thanks to the Yaps system, creators of high-quality content can benefit directly from the value they create, rather than having most of their earnings taken by platforms.

2.Wider exposure: Yapper Leaderboards provides a performance-based ranking system, allowing truly valuable creators to get more attention.

3.Direct communication with users: Creators can build more direct and valuable relationships with users, not limited by traditional platform algorithms.

For crypto projects and brands:

1.More accurate marketing: By understanding real-time market sentiment and trends, projects can develop more effective marketing strategies.

2.Transparent performance evaluation: Collaboration with creators becomes more transparent, with a clear display of the actual impact of the content and its effectiveness.

3.Stronger community ties: Through the InfoFi network, projects can more effectively connect with their target audience.

Does KAITO have future potential?

As a budding cryptocurrency enthusiast, this may be one of your most pressing questions: Is KAITO worthy of long-term attention? Does it have real potential for future growth? Let's analyze KAITO's future prospects from several key perspectives.

The Convergence Trend of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrencies

What is the trend of artificial intelligence convergence?The trend of artificial intelligence (AI) convergence is a process in which various AI technologies, such as natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, speech recognition, and data analytics, are integrated into unified systems to solve more complex problems. This allows for the creation of universal solutions that can, for example, simultaneously analyze text, images, and voice.

What is cryptocurrency convergence?Cryptocurrency convergence is the process by which the prices, market characteristics, or behavior of different cryptocurrencies become more similar over time.

First, KAITO stands at the intersection of two major technological waves: artificial intelligence and blockchain. As AI technology rapidly develops and the cryptocurrency market continues to mature, the combination of these two areas will create enormous value. As one of the early projects exploring this integration, KAITO is poised to benefit from this trend.

Solving Real Needs

KAITO addresses a major pain point in the crypto world: information fragmentation and inefficient attention allocation. As the cryptocurrency market continues to expand, the demand for high-quality information will only grow, not diminish. The AI-driven information aggregation and analysis services provided by KAITO are capable of meeting market needs, laying the foundation for its long-term development.

Team and Investment Background

Led by former Citadel hedge fund manager Yu Hu, the team has experience in both finance and technology, which is a unique advantage in crypto projects. In addition, KAITO has secured the support of leading venture capital firms such as Dragonfly and Sequoia Capital China, with total funding reaching $10.8 million. This not only provides sufficient financial support but is also a recognition of the project's potential.

Innovative Economic Model

The InfoFi concept and the tokenized attention mechanism proposed by KAITO bring innovation to traditional information dissemination models. If this model proves viable, it could change the way value is distributed between content creators and users, with the potential market size being significant.

Ecosystem Scalability

Currently, KAITO has developed core products such as Kaito Pro and Kaito Connect, and plans to expand its InfoFi network to more platforms, providing KAITO with opportunities for diversified development beyond current application scenarios.

Potential Difficulties

Of course, KAITO also faces some challenges. On the one hand, the competition in both the AI and cryptocurrency spheres is very high, which requires KAITO to constantly innovate to maintain a competitive edge. On the other hand, regulatory uncertainty can also affect the project's development.