Kamino is a decentralized credit and liquidity protocol built on Solana. It combines pooled collateral lending, automated liquidity vault strategies, fixed-rate loans, and real-world asset markets, holding over $1.3B in total value locked in October 2026.
Leadership and backing
Founded in 2022, Kamino raised venture funding from investors including ParaFi Capital and Alliance. In September 2026, the project named former Yieldstreet co-founder Michael Weisz as chief executive officer to lead its institutional credit push and oversee the establishment of an office in New York City. The leadership team expanded in October 2026 with the hiring of Matthew Klopfer to direct U.S. institutional markets alongside Blake Messer focusing on AI transaction systems.
Product architecture and mechanics
Kamino operates markets deployed on the Solana blockchain. Its flagship lending primitive, Kamino Lend, uses pooled peer-to-pool borrowing alongside segmented liquidity configurations such as the PRIME market, which held over $600M in deposits by late 2026. The platform also offers automated liquidity management vaults for concentrated liquidity positions, automated leveraged yield strategies, fixed-rate borrowing positions, and a decentralized exchange module designed for tokenized equity and real-world assets. Governance uses the KMNO token.
Track record and audits
Since its launch in 2022, Kamino has processed more than $650B in cumulative transaction volume. Active loan balances reached $909M in October 2026, generating $5.05M in protocol fees over a 30-day period and surpassing $51M in cumulative protocol revenue. The protocol smart contracts have undergone third-party security audits published via its dedicated security directory.
Risks and considerations
Collateralized positions face automated liquidation if asset prices drop, introducing bad debt risks during extreme market volatility or network latency. Lenders also remain exposed to smart contract bugs across core lending pools and connected automated market maker vaults, variable interest rate spikes, and collateral depeg events among tokenized assets.