Kaia

Klaytn Foundation and Finschia Foundation jointly proposed the merger in January 2024. KGP-25 passed on 15 February with reported approval of 90% on Klaytn and 95% on Finschia, giving the foundations a governance mandate to combine ecosystems and redesign token economics.

The implementation continued on Klaytn: Kaia launched there on 29 August 2024, so KLAY holders did not need to send tokens to a new chain. The 19 August transition announcement scheduled the end of Finschia staking and the offboarding of its governance validators, and described a one-way Kaia Portal process for FNSA. The subsequent mainnet launch announcement does not establish that each of those procedures, or every FNSA swap, had been completed. The merger joined two projects, while the planned ledger transition used different paths for their holders.

One KLAY became one KAIA. One FNSA represented about 148.079656 KAIA, reflecting Finschia’s far smaller unit count rather than a price bonus. A bridge received locked KAIA corresponding to convertible FNSA supply and released it after validated burn-and-claim requests.

The white paper assembled the launch estimate from circulating KLAY, converted FNSA, a LINE NEXT delegation allocation and KEF/KIF allocations, while legacy uncirculated Klaytn funds were to be burned through treasury rebalance. Those figures explain genesis; they are not a live 2026 supply audit.

For exchange-held FNSA, the timetable and support depended on each exchange. The Foundation advised withdrawal to a supported wallet when an exchange would not perform the conversion, so “automatic merger” did not describe every holder journey.

Optimized Istanbul BFT gives block production to a VRF-selected committee drawn from Governance Council validators. One-second finality comes with a concentrated admission threshold: a member must run a node and stake at least 5 million KAIA.

A holder can delegate, but the delegatee casts the Council vote. Every 5 million staked or delegated KAIA adds one vote up to a cap. Community discussion can begin a proposal, yet registering it on-chain requires positive feedback from at least one Council member. The design widens economic participation without making every wallet a direct legislator.

Current documentation uses 9.6 KAIA per block—about 300 million annually and a 5.2% initial gross inflation target. Half goes to validators and community, divided internally between contribution and staking rewards; KEF and KIF each receive 25%. Unearned contribution allocations may be burned, and governance can revise issuance and splits.

The two funds are not governed identically. KEF expenditures need Council approval. The Foundation prepares and executes KIF budgets for infrastructure, acceleration and its own operations, then discloses plans and results. Token governance therefore combines on-chain votes with identifiable institutional execution.

Klaytn began from Kakao’s orbit and Finschia from LINE’s blockchain initiative. Kaia later paired with LINE NEXT for Kaia Wave and messenger-facing Mini DApp distribution. The partnership can reduce an application’s path to users; it does not place every messenger user on-chain or prove that LINE NEXT controls validators.

Kaia DLT Foundation, incorporated in ADGM in August 2024, supports Council decisions and carries operational work such as fund execution and validator offboarding coordination. Its MiCA paper draws a legal boundary: KAIA is not a share, debt or claim on the Foundation, collateral, dividends or profits. Protocol participation is not ownership of the institution executing it.