What Is Kai Finance? Sui Leveraged Yield Vaults Explained
Kai Finance is a Sui leveraged yield platform with lending vaults and up-to-11x LP vaults on Cetus and Bluefin. How it works, risks, TVL, and JewelSwap alternatives.
Kai Finance is a leveraged yield platform on Sui that pairs single-asset lending vaults with leveraged concentrated-liquidity LP vaults on Cetus and Bluefin. Passive depositors earn interest by lending to leveraged farmers, who can borrow up to 11x to amplify their LP positions. It is built by Kuna Labs and has no token.
Kai Finance at a glance
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Category | Leveraged yield farming and lending vaults |
| Chain | Sui |
| Native token | None |
| Launched | Tracked by DefiLlama since November 2023 |
| Key products | Single Asset Vaults (SAVs), Leveraged LP Vaults, TypeScript SDK |
| TVL | About $0.89 million (DefiLlama, late October 2026), down from a peak near $50.8 million in June 2025 |
| Audits / security record | Audits by MoveBit and OtterSec, formal verification report by Asymptotic; no Kai exploit found in our research |
| Website | kai.finance |
| Integrated with JewelSwap | No |
What is Kai Finance?
Kai Finance describes itself as a leveraged yield platform on the Sui network, built for both passive and active investors. It is developed by Kuna Labs, and its smart contracts are open source on GitHub. The project's FAQ says it is fully self-funded, with no outside investors, and that it has no token. The team has said it would only consider one if TVL reached $100 million and the token had real utility.
DefiLlama has tracked Kai since November 2023. It stayed small through most of 2024, grew quickly from late 2024 and peaked at about $50.8 million in TVL in June 2025. Since then deposits have shrunk sharply: TVL was about $4.6 million in mid-June 2026 and about $0.89 million in late October 2026. The app and docs were still live in October 2026.
How Kai Finance works
- Lenders deposit into Single Asset Vaults. SAVs accept a single token, such as SUI, native USDC, USDY, DEEP, WAL, xBTC, wBTC or LBTC. Depositors receive yield-bearing receipt tokens such as ySUI or yUSDC.
- Farmers borrow from those vaults. Leveraged LP Vault users borrow from the SAVs to open concentrated-liquidity positions on Cetus or Bluefin pools, with up to 11x leverage depending on the pool.
- Interest flows to lenders. Borrowers pay interest that rises as vault utilisation rises, and that interest is the SAV depositors' yield. Kai's revenue comes from a performance fee on SAV yield; the displayed APY is already net of that fee.
- Rewards are reinvested. Kai says rewards are automatically reinvested every 30 minutes.
- Risk checks run continuously. Positions are valued with Pyth prices, and Kai uses margin checks, automatic deleveraging and liquidation. Its FAQ lists liquidation thresholds of 1.06 for stable pairs and 1.31 for volatile pairs.
Key features
- Two-sided design: one product for passive lenders and one for active leveraged farmers, linked by the same vaults.
- Up to 11x leverage: on selected Cetus and Bluefin pools, with lower limits on more volatile pairs.
- Auto-reinvested rewards: compounding every 30 minutes, the same principle explained in our auto-compounding guide.
- Pyth price feeds: used to resist price manipulation that could force unfair liquidations.
- Open source and SDK: contracts are public, and a TypeScript SDK lets other Sui apps build on Kai's vaults.
- Telegram alerts: LP vault users can connect Telegram for position notifications.
Risks and track record
- Leverage and liquidation risk: borrowing amplifies both gains and losses. A sharp price move can push a position below its liquidation threshold, and concentrated positions also stop earning when they move out of range.
- Withdrawal risk for lenders: SAVs keep only a liquidity buffer. When most of a vault is lent out, Kai warns that withdrawals may be temporarily limited until borrowers repay or new deposits arrive.
- Shrinking liquidity: TVL fell from about $50.8 million in June 2025 to about $0.89 million in late October 2026, per DefiLlama. Smaller vaults mean less borrowing capacity and more volatile rates. Kai's HackenProof bug bounty, which offered up to $100,000, was marked as ended on that platform as of October 2026.
- Dependency risk: Kai relies on Cetus and Bluefin pools and on Pyth prices. Problems in any of them can affect Kai positions. Kai also warns users never to trade its receipt tokens on DEXs, because scam pools may exist.
- Smart-contract risk: Kai lists audits from MoveBit and OtterSec and a verification report from Asymptotic, and we found no exploit of Kai itself, but audits do not remove risk.
Is Kai Finance integrated with JewelSwap?
No. Kai Finance is not integrated with JewelSwap.
JewelSwap offers its own yield products on Sui. Its auto-compounded farms on Cetus and Turbos pools manage the concentrated-liquidity range for you and reinvest rewards, and its Scallop leveraged yield farms let you farm with borrowed funds from the Scallop money market. Both are available in the JewelSwap Sui app, and our beginner's guide to leveraged yield farming explains the risks before you start.
Kai Finance vs other Sui apps
Kai sits between lending markets and DEXs. Lending protocols such as Scallop, NAVI and Suilend are far larger and let you borrow against collateral for any purpose, while Kai lends only to its own leveraged LP vaults. Compared with a plain yield aggregator, Kai adds leverage, which raises both potential yield and liquidation risk.
For a wider view, see our roundup of the best yield aggregators across top chains.
Related Sui apps
- Sui: the Layer 1 behind the whole directory.
- Cetus Protocol: the CLMM DEX behind many Kai LP vaults.
- Bluefin: spot and perpetuals exchange, also used by Kai vaults.
- Scallop: Sui money market behind JewelSwap's leveraged farms.
- NAVI Protocol: one of the largest lending markets on Sui.
- Pyth Network: the oracle that prices Kai positions.
Learn more on the JewelSwap blog
- Best yield aggregators in 2026: how leading aggregators compare across chains.
- What is auto-compounding?: why reinvesting rewards grows a position.
- What is a yield aggregator?: vaults, strategies and their risks.
- What is Sui?: the chain and its full app directory.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kai Finance safe?
Kai lists audits from MoveBit and OtterSec and a formal verification report from Asymptotic, and we found no exploit of Kai as of October 2026. Leveraged positions can still be liquidated, lender withdrawals can be delayed at high utilisation, and TVL has fallen to about $0.89 million.
Does Kai Finance have a token?
No. Kai Finance has no token as of October 2026. Its FAQ says the team would only consider one if TVL reached $100 million and the token had real utility.
Is Kai Finance integrated with JewelSwap?
No. Kai Finance is not integrated with JewelSwap. JewelSwap runs its own auto-compounded Sui farms on Cetus and Turbos pools and leveraged farms built on Scallop.
JewelSwap Sui Ecosystem directory · educational, not financial advice. Data as of October 2026. Browse all Sui apps.
