Kyros - The liquid restaking layer of Solana
Restaking has been a hot topic lately. The early hype of EigenLayer and its failed promises led to a lot of disappointment. But like everything at the frontier of tech, it was probably too early and needed more time to mature.
Bitcoin wasn't the first attempt at building a P2P electronic money system. We had a lot of unsuccessful shots before (DigiCash, e-gold, bitcash) but that didn’t mean the idea was wrong.
The same goes for big infrastructure breakthroughs. In the early days, railroads were seen as worthless because they lacked clear use cases and were seen as impractical. But look at what they eventually unlocked.
Crypto needs to be reshaped with creative ideas and market forces. Restaking is one of them. After an early wave of overhype, it is now making a comeback, this time on Solana, powered by Jito, and with much more solid foundations. This is giving rise to a big market opportunity.
The bullish case for Solana restaking
Fundamentally, restaking proposes a new way to secure and organise networks by enabling staked assets of an existing decentralised network (staked SOL) to be used as collateral to secure another infrastructure service (kind of like layering proof of stake layers one on top of another).
This can bring very interesting properties to both builders and DeFi users on Solana:
- For builders: it allows them to tap into the economic security of Solana base layer without having to spend significant resources on designing and managing their own decentralised validator set. This widens the scope of possibilities for their project and allows them to focus on what matters most (PMF and distribution).
- For Solana DeFi users: it increases capital efficiency, as a single asset is able to secure multiple decentralised services and potentially earn a higher return on capital while still being usable everywhere in DeFi.
Moreover, restaking, as envisioned by Jito, offers more possibility than anywhere else:
- Lower barrier to entry: Solana's low transaction and compute costs lower the barrier to entry for protocol looking to leverage restaking (that we called Node Consensus Network or NCNs). This supports the deployment of smaller, more cost-effective and efficient NCNs. This allows more services to be outsourced, reducing the scope of direct applications and expanding interoperability across the ecosystem.
- More possibilities: NCNs on Solana can also handle more complex operations then anywhere else and the code can be more dense without minimising on-chain compute. This enables on-chain verifiability, on-chain rewards distribution, on-chain data publication and enhances the overall flexibility and robustness of restaking.
Restaking will strengthen the Solana network
On top of bringing more security, decentralisation and composability to applications building on Solana, restaking can help to strengthen the Solana network:
- Restaking will push for more decentralisation: A large portion of Solana’s stake is still native. Restaking brings utility to liquid stake and is expected to increase LST market share. This benefits the network by promoting greater decentralisation and a higher-performance validator set.
- Restaking will make sense given SOL inflation trajectory: SOL’s inflation rate is set to decrease over time. This means that the marginal utility of restaking yield is set to increase. For example, an additional 1.5% APY is much more attractive when the base yield is 3% rather than 8%.
- Restaking will accelerate innovation: Restaking widens the scope of possibility for projects and also allows them to focus on PMF and distribution while maintaining strong security guarantees through shared economic security. This can bring faster innovation to Solana.
Market opportunity
The market opportunity for restaking on Solana is significant.
First, when comparing liquid staking on Solana versus Ethereum, we see a clear gap: liquid staking penetration on Solana remains much lower (16%) than on Ethereum (39%).
Second, within liquid staking itself, the share of assets being restaked is also far smaller on Solana, just 1.2% compared to 20% on Ethereum.
Given the additional utility that restaking and liquid staking unlocks, we expect Solana to mature over time and move closer to Ethereum’s ratios for both liquid staking and liquid restaking.
Using a scenario analysis based on expected CAGR for Solana’s liquid staking TVL and applying a target restaking market share closer to Ethereum’s, this is what we project:
Kyros: The liquid restaking layer
Kyros is the liquid restaking layer of Solana that is building on top of Jito (Re)staking.
It acts as the coordination point between builders who want to leverage restaking to bootstrap the economic security of their projects, and DeFi users who want access to new yield opportunities.
What is unique about Kyros
- Solid signs of early traction: $49M+ in TVL: Second biggest liquid restaking protocol on Solana behind Fragmetric.
- Integrations: Widest set of DeFi integrations among liquid restaking protocols on Solana + Higher secondary market liquidity.
- Lean team and no infra cost: Minimal burn rate and lowest TVL acquisition cost vs. competitors.
- Security and reliability: Less composability and DeFi risk than competitors due to its design that is fully Jito-aligned.
- Innovative tokenomics: Fair launch; DEX-focused; Futarchy-driven governance via MetaDAO; Community-centric; and revenue buyback model.
- New products: New VRT, New NCNS, Launch of DeFi vaults and a bigger focus on yield on Solana
- Unfair advantage: Support from SwissBorg (~$2B AUM, 800k+ users) to drive growth + Solid partnership with all major Solana DeFi players.
Roadmap
According to Kyros, the next actionable step in the protocol growth for 2026 are:
- New liquid restaking tokens: BTC restaking, Stablecoin restaking, RWAs (Gold, CHF, etc).
- New NCNs (Node Consensus Network): Opacity coming soon + they expect 3 new NCNs by H2 2026.
- DeFi vaults: Launch of DeFi vault products in partnership with tier-one Solana protocol.
Tokenomics
KYROS is set to be at the center of the Kyros protocol. The main pillars of the token are:
Futarchy-driven governance
Kyros, aims to progressively embrace a Futarchy-driven governance model via MetaDAO.
All major protocol decisions and big cash spends are intended to go through Futarchy voting. Further, KYROS will also be mintable through Futarchy. We acknowledge that mint authority can raise legitimate concerns, as many platforms flag tokens with this feature. However, not all mint authorities are the same: there is an important difference between one controlled by a single individual, a multisig, or an on-chain governance mechanism.
In the case of Kyros, new token issuance would only occur if approved via Futarchy proposals that are:
- fully on-chain and visible
- backed by community consensus
- subject to timelocks or grace periods
- reversible or vetoable by governance
This framework is designed to enhance flexibility, enabling KYROS to adapt over time while ensuring that any changes remain subject to transparent and verifiable community governance.
All in all, we believe that Futarchy is a rare 0-to-1 innovation in crypto and it’s really positive to see Kyros embracing that. This can be a real edge in the market.
Long-term alignment
Kyros does not have any private investor and aims to leverage that to the maximum to design a tokenomics model that aligns as closely as possible with its community. We expect this to include measures such as buybacks and token burns, determined transparently through Futarchy.
From day one, Kyros is also introducing kyKYROS, a restaked version of KYROS that brings:
- An initial APY through KYROS incentives
- The potential for future restaking rewards
- A central role as the benchmark for Futarchy market outcomes
Token details
Ticker: KYROS
Token standard: SPL
Initial total supply: 50,000,000 (50M)
Initial circulating supply: 30,000,000 (30M)
Max supply: Mintable through Futarchy
Initial distribution overview
Genesis Airdrop (25% / 12.5M KYROS)
Allocated to the Genesis Airdrop. Eligibility is based on each user’s contribution to the growth of Kyros, recognising both early supporters and those expected to help sustain the ecosystem going forward.
Future Community Rewards (25% / 12.5M KYROS)
Allocated for future incentive campaigns and programs aimed at growing adoption and rewarding long-term participation in the Kyros ecosystem.
BorgPad & SwissBorg Alpha (11% / 4M KYROS)
Reserved for the BorgPad and SwissBorg communities through the Alpha Deal. This allocation represents early community supporters and will unlock in full at TGE.
Liquidity provision (12% / 6M KYROS)
Allocated to seed and grow liquidity for the KYROS token across various venues throughout the lifecycle of the token.
Core Contributors (15% / 7.5M KYROS)
Portion of KYROS allocated to current and future core contributors to the ecosystem. This portion is subject to a 6 month lockup and 36 month linear vesting.
DAO Reserves (12% / 7.5M KYROS)
Allocated to the DAO treasury to fund future protocol development and ecosystem initiatives. The use of these reserves will be governed by Futarchy.
