DeFiPunk'd

Kinetiq

4 deployments · $1.3B aggregate TVL · Liquid Staking

Deployments

Each deployment is rated independently. Pick one to see its rating, risk analysis, and stage.

TVL $1.2B
Type Liquid Staking
Chain Hyperliquid L1
View on DeFiLlama ↗
Control criteria
Upgradeability Upgradeable Bug bounty cantina.xyz Governance forum Docs kinetiq.xyz
About

Kinetiq is a liquid staking protocol built natively on the Hyperliquid L1 blockchain that enables users to stake HYPE tokens and receive kHYPE, a yield-bearing liquid staking token. The protocol features StakeHub, an autonomous validator scoring and delegation system that automatically routes staked capital to top-performing validators. Kinetiq has expanded beyond core staking to include Markets by Kinetiq (kmHYPE) for on-chain equities trading, institutional staking variants (iHYPE), and governance via the KNTQ token launched in November 2025.

Risk analysis

One card per dimension, sorted by severity. Only Verifiability and Autonomy carry automated signals in Phase 0. See methodology for scope.

Audit a dimension yourself · DEFI@home Contribute an LLM-run assessment — any model, any dimension. Three agreeing runs merge automatically into the public record.

DEFI@home is a distributed audit network modeled on SETI@home: instead of CPU cycles, it crowdsources LLM reasoning. Paste a slice prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or any browsing-capable model, and submit the JSON output as a pull request. The quorum bot merges it once ≥3 independent runs (from different models) reach the same grade — no single model, and no single contributor, can move the needle alone. How it works →

  • Address discovery 6 addresses on file · 1 run Submit run ↗
  • Verifiability Unverified Submit run ↗
  • Control Unverified Submit run ↗
  • Ability to exit Unverified Submit run ↗
  • Autonomy Unverified Submit run ↗
  • Open Access Unverified Submit run ↗
  • Audit all 5 dimensions · one prompt Submit run ↗
  1. Verifiability tentative
    Open source + 11 audits

    Protocol publishes a GitHub repository and has at least one audit on record. This is a coarse Phase-0 signal only: auditor reputation, scope, and post-audit review coverage are not yet weighted.

    Run your own prompt Submit run ↗
  2. Autonomy tentative
    Validator set reduces autonomy

    Liquid staking and restaking protocols hand solvency to an external validator set with slashing dynamics they do not control. At Phase 0 this is a category-level heuristic; a real Autonomy assessment (oracles, fallbacks, governance-mutable dependencies) arrives with onchain review.

    Run your own prompt Submit run ↗
3 dimensions not yet assessed (Control, Ability to exit, Open Access)
  1. Control unknown Unverified
    Not yet assessed

    Who holds admin privileges, how contracts can be upgraded, and how quickly. No automated heuristic grades this at Phase 0; a real assessment arrives when onchain discovery reads roles, owners, and timelocks.

    No model has graded this dimension yet. Run the slice prompt through any LLM and submit the JSON — once ≥3 independent runs agree, the quorum bot merges the verdict here.

    Submit run ↗
  2. Ability to exit unknown Unverified
    Not yet assessed

    Whether users can exit on their own terms if the team disappears or acts adversarially. Requires per-protocol review; not available at Phase 0.

    No model has graded this dimension yet. Run the slice prompt through any LLM and submit the JSON — once ≥3 independent runs agree, the quorum bot merges the verdict here.

    Submit run ↗
  3. Open Access unknown Unverified
    Not yet assessed

    Whether the protocol depends on privileged operators, whitelists, geo-restrictions, or off-chain infrastructure. This is not a signal DeFiLlama carries in a usable form; crawler-based detection lands in a later phase.

    No model has graded this dimension yet. Run the slice prompt through any LLM and submit the JSON — once ≥3 independent runs agree, the quorum bot merges the verdict here.

    Submit run ↗

Stage

Preview of the Phase-3 maturity framework. DeFiPunk'd will adopt DeFiScan v2's stages verbatim; the section is rendered below in its intended shape so the structure is visible today.

Kinetiq kHYPE has not yet been assessed under the DeFiScan v2 stage framework.
The walkaway test is the central criterion. Once stages land, protocols reach Stage 1 only if users can exit in the presence of malicious operators even when the emergency council disappears.
Scope of assessment
Stages are assessed per-protocol against DeFiScan v2's criteria: governance structure, upgradeability path, timelock durations, emergency-council scope, and the walkaway test. The analysis depends on onchain discovery (roles, owners, timelocks) and deeper review of deployed contracts — neither of which DeFiPunk'd automates at Phase 0.
Stage 0 requirements pending
Governance is largely off-chain, contracts are upgradeable with short or no timelock, and the protocol depends on a multisig or team with full discretion. At Phase 0 DeFiPunk'd does not automatically evaluate these; the assessment lands with crawler-based onchain discovery.
Stage 1 requirements pending
Users can exit or opt out on their own terms even if the team disappears. Upgrades run through a meaningful timelock with an emergency security council clearly scoped. The walkaway test is the headline criterion.
Stage 2 requirements pending
Protocol is fully permissionless and immutable, or upgrades require a supermajority of token holders with a long timelock and no emergency override. This is the terminal stage of the DeFiScan v2 framework.
Learn more about DeFiScan v2 stages →
Stages are an opinionated assessment of maturity, not a rating of security or safety. A protocol can sit at Stage 2 and still carry substantial technical or economic risk; the framework exists to incentivize decentralization, not to rank protocols.

Contract surface

Every contract in scope for this protocol — pooled from DeFiLlama's TVL adapter (mechanical) and DEFI@home discovery submissions (LLM-curated). Verified-source flags come from Etherscan + Sourcify; owner / multisig metadata is read on-chain when available. Reviewer audit context, not a slice score. A lending protocol's adapter set will list third-party collateral tokens alongside its own contracts; attribution is the grader's job.

  • 13addresses
  • 0verified source
  • 0proxies

TVL adapter pinned at 683d369. Sourcecode fetched 2026-05-06. Control fetched 2026-05-06.

hyperliquid0x0000…c2d6TVL
hyperliquid0x6962…4d0fTVL
hyperliquidnull0x0000…0000TVL
hyperliquidtvl0x393d…2109TVL
hyperliquidtvl0x9209…dc7aTVL
Hyperliquid L1kHYPE token on hyperevmscan.io (primary block explorer for Hyperliquid L1); confirms kHYPE contract address 0xfD739d4e423301CE9385c1fb8850539D657C296D with protocol description0xfd73…296ddiscoverytoken
Hyperliquid L1KNTQ governance token on hyperevmscan.io; EIP-1967 transparent proxy pattern; implementation contract at 0x987aadf0f8b7ebe9a3a633e9f1d8c1c684b18e170x0000…c2d6discoverygovernance
Hyperliquid L1operator (asxnHYPE institutional)0x3eac…b06cdiscovery
Hyperliquid L1operator (flowHYPE institutional)0x992d…80f5discovery
Hyperliquid L1operator (HiHYPE institutional)0x0a36…8cf1discovery
Hyperliquid L1operator (hylqHYPE institutional)0xb73e…60d5discovery
Hyperliquid L1operator (kHYPE)0x23a4…4038discovery
Hyperliquid L1operator (kmHYPE)0x4459…82fadiscovery

Protocol Info

Links

[defillama] Source: DeFiLlama [:] Source: DEFI@home quorum
Twitter
@Kinetiq_xyz

Security

[defillama] Source: DeFiLlama [:] Source: DEFI@home quorum
Audits
4 audits
Security contact
security@kinetiq.xyz

Technical

[:] Source: DEFI@home quorum
Voting token
KNTQ Hyperliquid L1: 0x000000000000780555bd0bca3791f89f9542c2d6
Upgradeability
Upgradeable

Provenance

[defillama] Source: DeFiLlama
Review status
listed
Updated
2026-06-01 11:27 UTC