What is Kaspa? Kaspa is an open-source, proof-of-work cryptocurrency and Layer 1 network that uses a blockDAG instead of a conventional single-chain blockchain. Its GHOSTDAG consensus protocol allows blocks created at roughly the same time to remain part of the ledger and be ordered in consensus, supporting faster transaction processing while retaining Bitcoin-style mining security.
What is Kaspa built to do?
Kaspa’s blockDAG architecture differs from a linear blockchain, where competing blocks are generally discarded as orphaned blocks. GHOSTDAG organizes parallel blocks into a consistent transaction history. The network uses a UTXO transaction model, making its structure closer to Bitcoin than to account-based networks such as Ethereum.
The network operates at 10 blocks per second following the Crescendo hard fork, which activated in May 2025. Kaspa secures this activity with kHeavyHash proof of work. Mining began with CPUs and GPUs, later expanding to FPGA and ASIC hardware, including devices designed specifically for kHeavyHash.
Primary uses and applications
KAS is used for peer-to-peer transfers, payments, exchange settlements and other transactions that benefit from frequent block production. The network is also being developed as a settlement and sequencing layer for applications that execute some activity off-chain.
Kaspa’s programmability roadmap targets covenant-based applications, including smart wallets, vaults, native asset systems, decentralized exchanges and Layer 2 protocols. Community-developed infrastructure includes wallets, block explorers, mining pools, KRC-20 token applications and Kasplex-related projects. Individual applications are independent of the core protocol and can differ in maturity and security.
Who is behind Kaspa and where is it based?
Kaspa was founded by computer scientist and researcher Yonatan Sompolinsky. Its research lineage includes work with Professor Aviv Zohar on GHOST and later PHANTOM and GHOSTDAG concepts. The project grew from blockDAG research associated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard.
DAGLabs was involved in the early research and development phase. Official project material states that DAGLabs later renounced ownership, transferred the project to the public domain and dissolved. The mainnet launched on 7 November 2021 through a fair launch without a premine, presale or insider allocation.
Michael Sutton led the rewrite of the original Go-based node software in Rust, beginning in 2022. Other publicly identified contributors include Shai Wyborski, Mike Zak, Elichai Turkel, Ori Newman and Anton Yemelyanov.
The available sources do not confirm a headquarters, operating country or conventional company that owns the protocol. Associations with Israeli universities do not establish that the network is legally based in Israel. The Kaspa Ecosystem Foundation is described as independent from Kaspa core, but its confirmed legal jurisdiction and registration details are not public in the cited sources.
Tokenomics and distribution
New KAS enters circulation through proof-of-work mining rather than staking, a presale or a team allocation. The network uses declining emissions, with mining rewards reduced monthly by the factor (1/2)^(1/12), producing an approximate annual halving pattern. Declining issuance is disinflationary, but it does not mean that the circulating supply is falling.
CoinStats reports a circulating supply of 27,729,099,296 KAS and a total supply of 27,730,984,585 KAS. The market snapshot lists a price of $0.0441, a 24h change of +0.75%, a market cap of $1.22B (rank #92), and 24h volume of $18.21M. The all-time high is $0.2074, the current price is 78.74% below it.
Security, ecosystem and roadmap
Security depends on miners’ computational work, electricity costs and the economic difficulty of controlling enough hash power to censor transactions, double-spend or reorganize the network. GHOSTDAG retains parallel mining work, but it does not remove the standard operational risks of proof-of-work systems.
The Toccata hard fork activated on 30 June 2026 and added covenant-capable transaction logic, transaction introspection, script metering, inline zero-knowledge-proof verification and tooling for Silverscript, Kaspa’s higher-level covenant language. DAGKnight remains a future consensus upgrade designed to adapt confirmation behavior to network conditions. Longer-term plans include vProgs, based applications, Layer 2 systems and rollups that use Kaspa for sequencing, verification and settlement.
Kaspa’s distinctive value proposition is the combination of permissionless proof-of-work, parallel block processing and high transaction throughput. Its main limitations are the developing smart-contract ecosystem, increasing reliance on specialized mining hardware and the need for future upgrades to meet longer-term scaling objectives.