Layer 1 blockchain
Kava ticker KAVA
Summary
Proof-of-stake chain (chain ID kava_2222-10) built with the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT that also runs an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM chain ID 2222) inside the same application. Kava calls the two execution environments the Cosmos and Ethereum co-chains, but they share one validator set, one block sequence and one KAVA supply, and a built-in conversion module moves assets between them. KAVA holders bond or delegate stake to validators; a block commits once validators holding more than two thirds of voting power precommit it. On 27 September 2026 the chain reported 49 bonded validators against a cap of 100 and node software v0.28.2. 121012131430
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainPermissionless proof-of-stake chain (kava_2222-10) with its own validator set. Kava calls its two execution environments the Cosmos and Ethereum co-chains, but both run inside one chain with one validator set and one block sequence; neither side settles to another chain. The package table's class is kept.
- Settlement family
- Cosmos SDK
- Scarce resource
- Stake (proof of stake)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Economic finality
- Who makes blocks
- Bonded validators, chosen by CometBFT's weighted round robin in proportion to voting power. On 27 September 2026 the two largest (monikers Kraken02 and Luganodes) held about 24% and 17% of bonded stake, together more than one third; the seven largest held about 69%, more than two thirds. The operators behind the monikers were not verified.
- Fork choice
- No open fork choice: each height is decided by more than two thirds of precommits, so blocks do not reorganise in normal operation. If validators holding more than one third of voting power are offline or refuse to vote, the chain stops producing blocks rather than forking. Two conflicting commits would require at least one third of voting power to double-sign, which is attributable and slashable.
Qualifications
- Two execution environments · Applies. The Cosmos and Ethereum co-chains are two ways to use one chain, not two chains: they share validators, blocks and finality. Moving an asset between them is a conversion inside one state machine, not a bridge crossing.
- Settlement family · Partial. Kava is built with the Cosmos SDK, CometBFT and IBC, so it is grouped with Cosmos chains, but users of its EVM side see 0x addresses, EVM wallets and EVM contracts. It does not settle to Ethereum.
- Validator count · Contested. Kava's homepage showed 100 active validators on 27 September 2026, while the chain's staking endpoint reported 49 bonded validators against a cap of 100. This profile uses the on-chain figure.
- Legacy defi modules · Partial. Kava Lend, Kava Mint (which issues USDX) and Kava Swap are built into the protocol, but Kava announced in March 2026 that they are moving to maintenance mode, and governance capped their debt in May 2026.
- Ibc · Applies. IBC links Kava to other chains through on-chain light clients. It is interchain messaging between separately secured chains, not a rollup, and connected chains are not Kava layer 2s. It is recorded under bridges.
- Throughput · Unknown. No sourced, classed transactions-per-second figure was found, so none is recorded. The block gas limit (20 million) and the block interval (about 5.7 seconds on KavaScan) are recorded instead.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Security
- Gives up
- Broad block-producer participation and liveness. Only 49 validators were bonded on 27 September 2026, two of them together could halt the chain and seven could finalise blocks on their own; a pruned full node needs at least 64 GB of memory; and the chain stops if more than a third of voting power goes offline. Capacity is bounded by a 20 million gas limit per block of roughly six seconds.The emphasis reflects CometBFT's design, which favours safety and single-block finality over availability. In practice the safety margin rests on a handful of operators, and only about 12% of the KAVA supply was bonded on 27 September 2026, so the stake at risk is small relative to supply. Kava's own pages stress speed and interoperability; this profile does not treat those as a throughput claim.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 5Kava's node guide asks for at least 64 GB of memory for a pruned or default node, and 128 GB (256 GB recommended) for an archive node. Storage grows about 5 GB a month fully pruned, 25 GB a month on default pruning and 100 GB a month for an archive, which was about 6 TB when the guide was written. The guide points to pruned and archive snapshots from outside providers to shorten setup. Running a full node verifies the chain but does not make you a validator.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; no swap performed by the protocol is usable on mainnet. The protocol still contains BEP3, a hash-time-locked swap module built for transfers with Binance Chain, but on 27 September 2026 all four of its asset listings were switched off and no swaps were open; it also relied on a deputy service run by Binance to relay swaps. Swap contracts on the EVM side were not reviewed. 91721 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | CometBFT consensus produces the validator-signed commits that IBC light clients check, and Kava verifies counterparty chains through on-chain light clients. Limit: on 27 September 2026 only 19 of Kava's 149 open IBC transfer channels ran over a light client that was still active; the other 130 sat on expired clients, which stop transfers on those paths unless governance revives them, as it did for several counterparties in 2025 and 2026. No user-facing light client for Kava itself was reviewed. 2022242531 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to Kava was found. IBC channels are messaging paths, not payment channels. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Anyone can deploy and call EVM contracts (contract creation and calls are enabled in the chain's EVM parameters), and Kava's docs list Safe multisig contracts on the EVM side. The Cosmos side has no general smart-contract engine; its features are fixed modules changed by governance. 3415 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Rollups | Unknown | The review did not verify absence, so the rule that absence needs a source makes this unknown rather than not present. Earlier finding: no rollup settling to Kava was found. IBC-connected chains are separately secured chains, not rollups. 31 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | ThinKava Swap (protocol module), Kinetix, Equilibre, Curve | Kava Swap is an AMM built into the protocol and is moving to maintenance mode. On 27 September 2026 it had 12 pools, all paired with USDX. Kava's ecosystem page lists EVM venues such as Curve, Equilibre and WAGMI. DefiLlama's third-party index listed every Kava exchange venue below one million US dollars of deposits on 27 September 2026; depth was not measured independently. 718272835 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDt (Tether, on Kava EVM), USDX (Kava Mint, maintenance mode) | Tether lists Kava among its USDt networks, with the contract on the EVM side; the chain's conversion module can also move USDt to the Cosmos side. USDX is minted by the protocol against collateral; the chain's own price feed put it at 0.66 US dollars on 27 September 2026, and its minting module is being wound down. Circle does not list Kava for native USDC, so USDC on Kava is a bridged token. 81619283233 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | USDX is backed by over-collateralised debt positions rather than an algorithmic mechanism, so it is listed with native stablecoins. Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Kava EVM were not reviewed. 8 |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolIBC (built in), Axelar, Stargate, BEP3 (switched off) | IBC is built into the chain. On 27 September 2026 it had 149 open transfer channels, but only 19 of them sat on a light client that was still active, reaching 17 counterparty chains including the Cosmos Hub, Osmosis and Noble. Kava's ecosystem page also lists Axelar and Stargate. Tokens labelled as Multichain-bridged still have conversion listings on Kava, but that bridge's status was not verified. The protocol's own Binance Chain swap bridge is switched off. Circle's CCTP does not list Kava. Risk: IBC safety depends on each counterparty chain's consensus and on light clients being kept up to date; several of Kava's clients expired and needed governance votes to revive, and the only Axelar client found was expired on 27 September 2026. Axelar-bridged assets also depend on Axelar's own validator set. Stargate and tokens labelled as Multichain-bridged rely on those bridges' own trust models, which were not reviewed here. A bridged token is only as sound as its origin chain and bridge. 1617202224252734 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemKavaScan (EVM side), Mintscan (Cosmos side), Ping.pub, ATOMScan | Kava's docs name KavaScan for the EVM side and Mintscan for validators and the Cosmos side; the Cosmos chain registry lists further explorers, including Ping.pub and ATOMScan. Explorer data is indexed by each operator and is not consensus. 3629 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (through Kava's web app), Trezor (through MetaMask or Rabby, EVM side) | See the custody section: neither vendor's own wallet carries the Kava network. Kava's help center documents Ledger signing in its web app with the Cosmos or Ethereum device app, and Trezor lists the Kava network only beside MetaMask and Rabby, which covers the EVM side. 37383940 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediaryKava's web app, using Ledger's Cosmos app for KAVA and other IBC tokens and its Ethereum app for EVM assets, per Kava's help centerSame as native: Unknown | Can: Use Ledger's Cosmos device app in Kava's web app for KAVA and other IBC tokens, per Kava's help center (page last updated May 2023) Can: Hold EVM-side assets with Ledger's Ethereum device app, per the same page Can: Sign with a Ledger device through the kava command-line tool, whose v0.28.1 release fixed Ledger device detection Cannot: Add a Kava account in Ledger Wallet itself: Kava is not among Ledger Wallet's Cosmos chain integrations, although Ledger's templated Kava page says otherwise Cannot: Rely on Ledger's page for staking or EVM token support; neither is stated thereLedger's Kava coin page uses the same template as pages for networks Ledger Wallet does not carry, so it is not taken as evidence of Ledger Wallet support. The same recovery phrase can produce different kava1 and 0x accounts in different wallets, so check the address type before sending. 11363839 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby (Kava's EVM side only)Same as native: Unknown | Can: Use MetaMask or Rabby with a Trezor for Kava EVM accounts and apps, per Trezor's Kava page Cannot: Manage the Kava network in Trezor Suite: Suite's network list has BNB Smart Chain but no Kava network, so Suite can hold KAVA only as a token on BNB Smart Chain Cannot: Use a Cosmos-side wallet app with Trezor for kava1 accounts or IBC transfers; none is listedTrezor's page lists two KAVA networks (BNB Smart Chain and Kava) and three wallet apps (Trezor Suite, MetaMask and Rabby) without saying which app covers which network; Trezor Suite's current code has no Kava network, so the Kava network is reached through MetaMask or Rabby. Kava allows some staking and voting messages to be signed from an EVM wallet, but that path with a Trezor was not tested. 3740 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Kava yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Proposal to finalise Mint and Lend parameters and extend claims is rejected (proposal 221)
Proposal 221, the second phase of the wind-down, would have finalised the Mint and Lend parameter changes, aligned limits on deprecated markets and extended the incentive claim deadline to 31 December 2026. Voting closed on 15 August 2026 with about 45 million KAVA voting no and about 22 million no with veto, against about 0.13 million yes.
- Proposal:Rejected
- Implementation:not applied
- Release:no software release involved
- Activation:not activated
-
Governance revives expired IBC light clients for Injective, UX Chain and Secret
Kava governance passed three proposals replacing expired IBC light clients with fresh ones: Injective (voting closed 26 May 2026), UX Chain (3 June 2026) and Secret (30 July 2026). An expired client stops token transfers on that path until a vote restores it. The same Secret client had already been revived in August and December 2025, and the UX Chain client had expired again by 27 September 2026.
- Proposal:Passed
- Implementation:substitute clients applied on-chain
- Release:no software release involved
- Activation:paths restored after each vote; the UX Chain client had expired again by 27 September 2026
Sources: Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 216: Recover IBC light client for Injective (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 217: Recover IBC light client for UX Chain (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 220: Recover IBC light client for Secret (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 203: Recover IBC light client for Secret (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 209: Recover IBC light client for Secret (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Kava IBC client 07-tendermint-124 (UX Chain) status (REST endpoint) (external site)
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Governance caps Kava Mint and Lend debt near current usage (proposal 215)
Proposal 215 passed when voting closed on 4 May 2026. It lowered the debt limits for Kava Mint collateral types and Kava Lend markets to roughly their existing usage, left incentive schedules unchanged and set the deadline for claiming incentive rewards to 30 June 2026.
- Proposal:Passed
- Implementation:parameter change applied on-chain
- Release:no software release involved
- Activation:in force since 4 May 2026
Sources: Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 215: Phase 1, Cap Kava CDP and Lend Debt, Extend Incentive Claims (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Kava CDP parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
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Kava says Lend, Mint and Swap are moving into maintenance mode
Kava said it is concentrating on its EVM side: stablecoin settlement with native USDt, tokenised real-world assets and AI-assisted tooling. Its original protocol modules, Kava Lend, Kava Mint and Kava Swap, will move into maintenance mode. The post said incentive emissions for them would end, users would be asked to withdraw over a reasonable timeframe, and a governance proposal would set out the details.
- Proposal:announced; followed by governance proposals 215 and 221
- Implementation:partly carried out through governance parameter changes
- Release:no software release involved
- Activation:debt caps in force since May 2026; final wind-down terms not settled
Sources: Kava Chain (Medium) — Kava Is Focusing on EVM and Real-World Assets: Here's What That Looks Like (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 215: Phase 1, Cap Kava CDP and Lend Debt, Extend Incentive Claims (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Proposal 221: Phase 2, Finalize Kava CDP and Lend Debt Parameters, Extend Incentive Claims (external site)
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Kava node software v0.28.2 updates its CometBFT consensus engine
Kava Labs published node software v0.28.2. Its release notes list one change: the bundled CometBFT consensus engine moves to v0.37.18. The notes give no upgrade height, do not say whether the update is required and describe no change for wallet or app users. It was the newest release on Kava's release page on 27 September 2026, and Kava Labs' public API node reported running it that day.
- Implementation:CometBFT dependency updated to v0.37.18
- Release:released 23 January 2026; newest release on 27 September 2026
- Activation:no network-wide activation height given; Kava Labs' API node reported v0.28.2 on 27 September 2026
Sources: Kava-Labs/kava on GitHub — Kava v0.28.2 release notes (external site) · Kava-Labs/kava on GitHub — Kava node software releases (Atom feed) (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Kava node and application version (REST endpoint) (external site)
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Kava v0.28.1 fixes Ledger device detection
Kava Labs published v0.28.1 and described it as an optional, non-breaking release. It updates the library the kava software uses to talk to Ledger hardware wallets (zondax/ledger-go, from v0.14.3 to v1.0.0) to fix problems detecting a device the notes call the Nano Plus. The notes say people who do not use a Ledger do not need it.
- Implementation:Ledger library updated
- Release:released 29 December 2025; followed by v0.28.2 on 23 January 2026
- Activation:no network activation; optional install for Ledger users
Sources: Kava-Labs/kava on GitHub — Kava v0.28.1 release notes (external site) · Kava-Labs/kava on GitHub — Kava node software releases (Atom feed) (external site)
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Kava 18 (v0.28.0) released for a mainnet upgrade at block 14,136,737
Kava Labs released Kava 18 (v0.28.0), a mainnet upgrade scheduled for block 14,136,737, about 15:00 UTC on 25 February 2025. Its stated purpose is an update to the IBC packet-forwarding middleware to fix unreliable USDT transfers over IBC. It also moves node builds to Go 1.22, Cosmos SDK v0.47.15, CometBFT v0.37.13 and RocksDB v9.3.1. The upgrade guide says a software upgrade proposal activates it at that height and tells operators to keep their nodes running until then and switch to v0.28.0.
- Proposal:software upgrade proposal named in the upgrade guide; its on-chain record was not read in this review
- Implementation:code released as v0.28.0
- Release:released 16 February 2025
- Activation:scheduled for block 14,136,737 (about 25 February 2025); not confirmed from an on-chain record here. Kava Labs' API node ran the later v0.28.2 on 27 September 2026
Sources: Kava-Labs/kava on GitHub — Kava 18 Release (v0.28.0) (external site) · Kava-Labs/kava on GitHub — Kava 18 upgrade instructions (migrate/v0_28) (external site) · Kava-Labs/kava on GitHub — Kava node software releases (Atom feed) (external site) · Kava Labs public REST endpoint — Kava node and application version (REST endpoint) (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Kava through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- The operators behind validator monikers such as Kraken02 and Luganodes were not verified.
- Ledger's templated Kava page offers a Kava account in Ledger Wallet, but Ledger Wallet's code has no Kava integration; whether Kava's web app still supports Ledger as its May 2023 help page describes was not tested.
- The current status of the Axelar, Stargate and Multichain routes to Kava was not checked against those bridges' own documentation.
- Exchange-venue depth comes from a third-party aggregator and was not measured independently.
- Whether any EVM contract on Kava offers reversible or delayed transfers, recovery, payment channels or trust-minimised swaps was not reviewed.
- Staking rewards of about 10 million KAVA a year are paid from a community pool that held about 8.7 million KAVA on 27 September 2026; no published plan for funding rewards after the pool runs down was found.
- Kava's chain-halt and incident history was not reviewed.
- Whether relayers actively serve the 19 IBC paths whose light clients were still active was not checked.
- The mainnet launch date and the history behind the -10 chain-ID suffix were not sourced.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Intro to the Kava Network (external site)
- EVM Overview (external site)
- Connect MetaMask (external site)
- FAQ: The Basics (external site)
- Kava Node Setup Guide (external site)
- Run Validator Node (external site)
- Swap module: Concepts (external site)
- CDP module: Concepts (external site)
- BEP3 module: Concepts (external site)
- x/evmutil concepts (module specification) (external site)
- Kava v0.28.1 release notes (external site)
- Kava node and application version (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava staking parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava bonded validators (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava EVM module parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava evmutil conversion parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava BEP3 parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava Swap pools (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava price feed current prices (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava IBC channels (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava BEP3 open atomic swaps (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava IBC connections and their light clients (REST endpoint; each client's status was then read from the client_status endpoint) (external site)
- Kava consensus parameters, including the block gas limit (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava IBC client 07-tendermint-78 (Axelar) status (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava governance proposal 216: Recover IBC light client for Injective (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Kava homepage (external site)
- Kava Ecosystem (external site)
- Kava Is Focusing on EVM and Real-World Assets (Kava Chain on Medium, read via its RSS feed) (external site)
- Kava chain registry record (external site)
- Byzantine Consensus Algorithm (external site)
- IBC overview (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- CCTP supported blockchains (external site)
- DefiLlama protocols API (per-chain deposit figures) (external site)
- Kava wallet (external site)
- Safe and secure Kava wallet (external site)
- Supported wallets (Kava app help center, last updated 11 May 2023) (external site)
- Ledger Wallet Cosmos chain integrations (coin-cosmos chain directory) (external site)
- Trezor Suite network list (networksConfig.ts, develop branch) (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding