As the digital asset sector continues to expand and offer a broader and more efficient array of financial instruments, including tokenized real-world assets and other decentralized finance (DeFi) tools, the industry is still being held back by the lack of inter-ecosystem connectivity between blockchain systems and traditional finance (TradFi). Since fiat linked to a bank account or credit card isn’t programmable, it lacks compatibility with smart contracts, which are designed to execute blockchain-based transactions.
While fiat can be integrated into Web3 environments using centralized exchanges, stablecoins, and payment gateways, it can’t genuinely embrace the decentralized, borderless, and programmable nature of blockchain-based ecosystems.
However, Kima, an asset-agnostic peer-to-peer money transfer and payment protocol, aims to address the fragmentation and complexity of the digital asset sector by enabling easy interactions with TradFi instruments, breaking our reliance on centralized intermediaries. Kima’s vast infrastructure, including its decentralized settlement layer, Universal Payment Rail, and Liquidity Cloud, connects fiat and digital assets across multiple blockchains, allowing transactions to occur without being tied to a specific currency or payment rate.
Since 2021, Kima has developed its protocol with the ultimate vision of building a secure and decentralized system that seamlessly merges traditional finance (TradFi) systems, blockchain technologies, and decentralized finance (DeFi).
And now, after three years of R&D, dozens of partnerships, and more than 1.2 million testnet transactions generated by over 300,000 users, Kima is preparing for its mainnet launch, promising to deliver harmonious digital asset-fiat interoperability. Kima does not rely on vulnerable smart contracts to support its money transfer protocol, yet its protocol effectively manages assets across all blockchains.
As the project readies for its mainnet and token launches, Kima CEO and Co-Founder Eitan Katz said: “It’s been a busy year for Kima as we progress across our roadmap and continue forging meaningful partnerships.”
Strategic partnerships are a central pillar of Kima’s long-term strategy to have its protocol serve as the backend for inter-ecosystem transactions across numerous networks, applications, and financial institutions. A selection of its recent partnerships include:
- Gate.io: One of crypto’s premier exchanges, Gate.io has teamed up with Kima to focus on joint marketing activities and has also integrated Kima’s cross-chain functionality into the Gate Wallet. This collaboration facilitates seamless asset transfers between Ethereum and other Layer-1s.
- Glyph: As the flagship decentralized exchange on the Bitcoin-powered Core DAO network, Kima’s protocol enabled Glyth to seamlessly move BTC, stablecoins, and fiat currencies to expand investment opportunities.
- Klink: Designed to provide users with a unique blend of high-growth investment opportunities, Klink plans to integrate Kima’s interoperability functionality to accept stablecoin payments across multiple blockchains.
- Lumoz: Leading modular compute layer and ZK-RaaS (zero knowledge-rollup as a service) platform Lumoz has partnered with Kima for joint marketing initiatives, enabling it to access Kima’s extensive partner network.
- Elympics: As a competitive Web3 gaming protocol, Elympics plans to integrate Kima’s cross-chain payment rail and its on/off-ramp capabilities to provide one simple API so it can accept stablecoin payments from all chains.
- DeFinity Markets: As a premier electronic communication network (ECN) for digital assets in financial institutions, DeFinity has integrated Kima’s infrastructure to offer an omni-asset institutional settlement layer that is both custody agnostic and interoperable.
- Mizzle: Branded as a DePIN platform empowering developers with no-code DevOps, Mizzle plans to leverage Kima’s APIs to accept stablecoin payments from all chains.
Led by a team of experienced tech and Web3 professionals, Kima’s growth builds on an intense three-year development period focused on creating its extensive interoperable infrastructure. Earlier this year, Kima secured an additional $5 million in a funding round led by Blockchange and other VCs. Kima’s six-month-long developer-exclusive testnet saw over 500,000 unique wallet participants and more than 1.2 million transactions executed.
“As we approach our mainnet and token launches, we are eager to maintain our momentum by strategically focusing on adding more automation for our liquidity aggregation and management algorithms, scaling, and supporting even more use cases for our technology,” Katz added.