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Karura is an all-in-one decentralized finance (DeFi) hub and stablecoin platform built on Kusama (KSM) and integrated into Polkadot (DOT). Karura was created by the Acala Network, which has won four Web3 Foundation grants and founded the Substrate Developer Academy.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Karura.

Both Karura and Acala are backed by multiple funds, including Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital and Hypersphere. Karura and Acala operate in parallel. Specifically, Karura is implementing DeFi on Kusama in the same way that Acala is offering DeFi on Polkadot. The network is built with almost the same codebase as Acala: the two platforms provide scalable, convenient and fast DeFi cross-chain ecosystems for Kusama and Polkadot.

Parachain Karura is a platform that allows users to create effective, low-cost and complex financial applications, saving time and increasing trading efficiency.

The platform itself provides a multi-collateralized stablecoin backed by cross-chain assets (kUSD), a trustless staking derivative (liquid KSM), and an automated market maker (AMM) decentralized exchange (DEX) for unlocking liquidity and supporting financial innovation.

Karura is the decentralized financial hub of Kusama, a scalable multi-chain network for radical innovation and early-stage Polkadot deployments. Karura is the sister network to Acala. It hosts multichain liquid staking token (LST) protocols (such as liquid KSM - LKSM), an AMM decentralized exchange, and an app platform that is EVM-compatible and highly customizable (based on Substrate). Karura is secured by Kusama, and is the liquidity gateway of Kusama parachains, Acala and L1/L2 blockchains

Karura was founded by the same team that is behind the Acala Network: Ruitao Su, Bette Chen and Bryan Chen.

Ruitao Su is a co-founder of Acala and current CEO of Laminar Protocol. Prior to that, he was the CTO of Centrality. Su is an award-winning software engineer, entrepreneur, investor and advisor to tech companies and startups.

Bette Chen is a co-founder at Acala Network and the COO at Laminar. She is an experienced product manager and entrepreneur. Chen holds academic degrees in software engineering and business (MBA). She has 10 years of experience managing products in the fields of software and high technologies.

Bryan Chen is another co-founder at Acala Network. He is also a co-founder and CTO of Laminar. Chen is a major contributor to the Substrate codebase and a Polkadot Ambassador.

All developments and technological updates made by the Acala team will always be delivered to Karura before any other Polkadot platforms. Thus, Karura users will be among the first to take advantage of the latest DeFi technologies.

Karura offers a stablecoin — Karura Dollar (kUSD), which maintains a 1:1 peg to the value of the U.S. dollar. This removes the need to send KSM tokens to Binance because users can safely swap KSM to a stablecoin (or to other assets such as Bitcoin).

Karura also provides a liquidity protocol for KSM tokens if you don't want to participate in auctions, but still aim to receive staking rewards. However, users will have to wait seven days to unfreeze the tokens. Users can leverage the liquidity protocol and swap KSM to LKSM; this token will include the annual percentage yield that you receive, and, most importantly, it will be liquid, making the staking itself liquid.

Karura has a wallet that supports different coins. The platform also supports non-fungible tokens (NFTs), integrated bridges (renBTC, polkaBTC), the ability to borrow and various oracles.

One of the main advantages Karura offers is the ability to execute hundreds of DeFi strategies without leaving the platform. Users can use cross-chain tokens (like BTC or ETH) to issue a self-service loan in kUSD. They can also earn fees by providing liquidity to the Karura DEX. Furthermore, users will receive rewards and benefits with an unlocked and liquid KSM staking derivative by simply maintaining liquidity while staking.

To sum up, the Karura DeFi Hub on Kusama offers liquid KSM (LKSM) staking, a decentralized exchange, an algorithmic stablecoin and a fixed KAR token supply.

Karura is a blockchain platform custom-built for DeFi. It is powered by KAR, a utility token with a maximum supply of 100,000,000. KARs value is backed by a certain volume of reserved ACA tokens.

The total supply is allocated as follows: 60.87% to the сommunity, 10% to the founding team, 10.08% to the backers and 18.33% to the early backers. The community allocation is further broken down as follows: 34% to the auction reward and liquidity program, 10.25% to the reward reserve, 5% to ecosystem development and 11.62% to the treasury/reserve.

The participants of the parachain auction will be rewarded with KAR tokens. 30% of KAR will be unlocked and transferable upon receipt and 70% will be released within 48 weeks.

The KAR token supports six distinct use cases: transaction fees, node incentivization, governance, algorithmic risk adjustment, pallet deployment and smart contract deployment.

Karura doesnt support smart contracts but relies on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for security. By launching on Kusama, Karura also enjoys access to Kusama's plug-and-play security system.

As of June 2021, KAR tokens are not available for trading on any cryptocurrency exchanges. However, users can try out Karura's decentralized applications (DApps) on the Mandala testnet.

To learn more about buying crypto, check our extensive guide.