Katana Revolutionizes DeFi from Its Cradle with GSR and Polygon Labs

Katana Foundation is a non-profit organization whose aim is to make the most advanced DeFi experience accessible to all kinds of users. It has announced the launch of Katana on a private mainnet. Engineered with DeFi in mind, this blockchain attempts to derive maximum productivity from each asset, endlessly granting superior yield and strong liquidity.

In contrast with the fragmented nature of DeFi, Katana pools liquidity into a few protocols and captures yield wherever it can, thus building a self-sustained DeFi engine for long-term development. Pre-deposits are now open, rewarding pioneers with KAT. Public mainnet launch is scheduled for June.

All About Katana

Born in the incubator of GSR and Polygon Labs, Katana’s debut is bolstered by several strategic allies. First, there is Conduit, the leading rollup platform with over USD 4 billion in TVL. Next comes Chainlink, the most widely used decentralized oracle network, providing secure data feeds for the network’s critical functions. Last but not least is Blockworks, the premier crypto media and data provider, tasked with producing ecosystem content and data analysis.

Katana will thus offer options for everyone: DeFi users, who continue to drive most on-chain activity, will gain access to higher yields and be able to compose “lego” DeFi strategies within an environment optimized for yield. Its design ensures each asset achieves a higher return, unlocking hidden value through a unified ecosystem that consistently outperforms other platforms.

Meanwhile, the maturation of DeFi markets will increasingly attract institutional capital, but challenges remain: fragmented liquidity and value leakage still hamper market depth and asset efficiency. Katana is built to concentrate liquidity and ensure it remains deep, thus minimizing slippage and allowing borrowing and lending rates to stay stable.

Backed by Industry Leaders

Katana is supported from day one by two industry giants. GSR will provide liquidity management and cross-chain support, as well as incubate innovative DeFi protocols through its ventures arm. Polygon Labs, for its part, has offered strategic advice, technical backing, and ecosystem alignment during development, under its Agglayer Breakout Program.

“At GSR we’re proud of Katana; our role reflects our focus on incubation and consultancy,” said Jakob Palmstierna, President of GSR. “We don’t just deploy capital; we also design sustainable, accessible DeFi ecosystems. With Katana, we apply our market expertise to generate real yield and concentrated liquidity”, added Palmstierna.

Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, added, “DeFi users deserve ecosystems with sustainable liquidity and ‘real’ yields. Katana’s model turns inefficiencies into advantages, creating a positive-sum environment for creators and participants.”

Katana’s infrastructure is built on cdk-opgeth, a custom OP Stack build integrated with Agglayer and reinforced by ZK proofs. This allows developers to use familiar tools and gives users extra security and fast transaction finality. ZK proofs are generated by Succinct’s SP1 verifier using Polygon’s production-ready Plonky3 zkVM. The network is being operated with the support of Conduit’s high-performance G2 Sequencer.

Deep Liquidity in a Unified DeFi Ecosystem

Katana creates deep liquidity for its user base by consolidating liquidity across a select group of leading DeFi products, offering their users superior efficiency, lower slippage, and more competitive rates than others. The core ecosystem participants include:

• Morpho: Optimized lending and borrowing.
• Sushi: Deep spot liquidity and aggregator-powered trading.
• Vertex: Capital-efficient perpetuals trading.

On top of that, developers can build solutions that leverage Katana’s concentrated liquidity. Similar-function assets, like stablecoins, BTC, and ETH, are pooled to generate even greater depth:

• Agora issues the AUSD stablecoin.
• Lombard launches LBTC, a liquid, yield-bearing BTC pegged 1:1.
• Ether.Fi offers weETH, wrapped ETH earning staking rewards plus additional yield via restaking.
• BitVault provides institutional-grade USD exposure backed by BTC.

To operate entirely within Katana, Universal will integrate non-native blue-chip assets (like XRP, SOL, SUI…) enabling on-chain trading and access to liquid-staked versions of these tokens with superior yield, looping, arbitrage, and farming opportunities.

Five Pillars for Maximum Yield

1. VaultBridge: Bridged assets earn yield on Ethereum and are capitalized on Katana from deposit, ensuring productive liquidity from the very first moment. Users benefit from this.
2. Reinvested Fees & App Revenues: Network fees and app revenues are funneled back into incentives, liquidity, and network growth, again benefiting users.
3. AUSD Profit Sharing: The stablecoin shares its profits with the ecosystem, further boosting user returns as the network expands. Once again, the users can see tangible benefits for them.
4. App-Level Incentives: Core apps allocate tokens for incentives, increasing yield and deep liquidity network-wide. Once again, with the expansion of Katana, the user base will see benefits.
5. KAT Token Launch: KAT holders will govern the allocation of future emissions, sharing governance upside with users, benefiting from the whole process.

These pillars ensure that as the network grows and bridged asset volumes increase, user yields rise sustainably, while deep liquidity remains stable even in volatile markets, thanks to revenues cycling back into the ecosystem rather than relying on temporary incentives.

Productive TVL and Aligned Incentives

Katana’s TVL is actively deployed across lending, trading, and yield strategies. On other chains, bridging and idle assets merely inflate metrics; on Katana, users earn real yield through core apps and third-party developments.

The native KAT token follows a vote-escrow (“ve”) model to align incentives. Users can earn KAT in a free “lootbox” raffle by pre-depositing ETH, USDC, USDT, or WBTC, with locks of up to nine months. Upon converting to veKAT, they gain voting power over emissions allocation to core apps. Thus, KAT emissions flow to protocols that generate real liquidity and network growth, rewarding long-term value over speculation.

Private Mainnet Now Live

Katana’s private mainnet is already available, giving developers and early adopters the chance to test its core apps. Those interested can participate today at katana.network.