Kodiak is a core project in the Berachain ecosystem's DEX sector. As the protocol with the highest TVL on the Berachain chain to date, Kodiak has firmly established its position as the ecosystem's liquidity hub and has demonstrated strong capital attraction and market organization capabilities in its early stages.
In early November 2025, Kodiak launched the Kodiak Perp product, officially entering the on-chain derivatives market. This opened up higher-frequency, more capital-efficient trading scenarios for Berachain and propelled the development of the on-chain derivatives market to a new stage. As of January 5th, Kodiak Perp's cumulative trading volume had exceeded $1 billion. With the successive launches of TGE, a new round of trading incentive programs, and the VIP system, Kodiak Perp's trading activity and market size are expected to continue to expand.
Entering 2026, Kodiak also ushered in several new product developments. These updates not only strengthened its protocol depth and product matrix, but also provided more impetus and space for the liquidity expansion and application implementation of the Berachain ecosystem as a whole.
Supports perpetual contract trading for gold and silver.
On January 10th, Kodiak Perps announced the official launch of perpetual contracts for $XAU (gold) and $XAG (silver), supporting leverage up to 20x. All related trades are eligible to participate in the Kodiak New Year $69,000 trading contest, further enhancing market participation and trading activity. This also marks another significant expansion of Kodiak Perps' asset coverage and trading structure.
In fact, compared to mainstream crypto assets, gold and silver possess distinctly different risk-return structures and macroeconomic attributes. They are not driven by a single narrative or technological cycle, but rather anchored in the global macroeconomy, inflation expectations, interest rate cycles, and safe-haven demand. Their price fluctuations reflect real-world capital flows and macroeconomic assessments. This gives gold and silver a natural advantage in the on-chain derivatives system: low correlation, strong hedging properties, and a clearer pricing logic. This provides traders with a strategic space distinct from native crypto assets, making them particularly suitable for macro hedging, cross-market arbitrage, and risk balancing.
From a platform and ecosystem perspective, the launch of precious metal perpetual contracts has multiple positive implications for Berachain. On the one hand, it significantly expands the boundaries of tradable assets on the Berachain chain, enabling the ecosystem to systematically introduce a macro asset pricing dimension for the first time, enhancing the on-chain market's attractiveness to professional traders and cross-market funds. On the other hand, trading in these assets often involves higher sustainability and larger capital volumes, helping to improve the depth, stability, and capital utilization efficiency of the overall derivatives market.
For Kodiak, the introduction of $XAU and $XAG not only strengthens Perps' positioning as a comprehensive derivatives trading hub and further expands the platform's user base, but also further consolidates its key role in the Berachain ecosystem in carrying high-frequency trading and core liquidity. This allows Berachain's on-chain financial system to gradually move from "crypto-native trading" to a multi-asset derivatives ecosystem that is closer to the real global market structure.
A brand new VIP staking incentive system
Kodiak is also simultaneously refining its incentive and cost structure around perpetual contracts. The Kodiak VIP staking system is now officially launched and is beginning to release more explicit and sustainable long-term benefits to active traders.
Focusing on the Kodiak VIP system, which uses xKDK staking as its core entry point, different VIP levels are unlocked based on staking volume, corresponding to discounts on perpetual contract trading fees. Through a tiered design, Kodiak VIP levels are dynamically adjusted daily based on staking activity, with a maximum upgrade to Diamond level, enjoying up to 75% off Kodiak Perps fees. This directly correlates fee levels with the user's long-term engagement with the protocol.
It's worth noting that xKDK used to unlock VIP levels is not limited to a single purpose. While receiving fee discounts, the staked funds can still participate in protocol incentives and governance mechanisms, thus preventing funds from being split across different stakes and maintaining high overall efficiency. The fee discount applies to the Kodiak-side fees and takes effect after the basic execution fees are settled, making the transaction cost structure clearer and more predictable.
In practice, the VIP system significantly benefits high-frequency and professional traders. With transaction costs effectively reduced, higher-frequency and more complex trading strategies can operate stably in Berachain's perpetual contract market, rather than remaining merely temporary participants. Simultaneously, this mechanism further expands the practical applications of tokens. Tokens no longer merely serve governance or incentive functions but directly participate in transaction cost pricing, forging a closer link between their value and actual trading activity.
At a broader level, the VIP staking system and the Perps season points mechanism together construct a clear positive cycle: trading activities generate transaction fees and point accumulation, incentives are converted into xKDK, staking upgrades VIP levels, thereby reducing transaction costs and driving growth in trading volume. This structure helps propel Berachain's derivatives market from an incentive-driven early stage to a steady-state operation centered on real trading demand and capital efficiency.
Therefore, for Kodiak VIP, it is more of an important part of the maturation of its perpetual contract system, providing traders and the ecosystem with a more long-term participation path.
$KDK has integrated with the lending protocol Dolomite, enabling new financial application scenarios.
Beyond derivatives, Kodiak's native token, $KDK, is also rapidly entering the more core on-chain funding layer.
Following the completion of TGE and its entry into free circulation, Kodiak is continuing to advance the real usability of its token within the Berachain ecosystem. The latest development is that $KDK has been officially integrated into the lending protocol Dolomite, becoming one of the assets that can be used for staking, lending, and fund allocation. This marks KDK's further advancement from a "governance and incentive token" into a composable productive asset.
Dolomite is one of the most capital-efficient lending markets in the current DeFi space. Its core advantages lie in its highly modular risk parameter design, rapid adaptation to new assets, and a funding structure that is friendly to professional trading and leverage strategies. In multiple ecosystems, Dolomite often plays the role of a "funding hub," enabling assets to be reused repeatedly rather than being statically held.
The integration of KDK into Dolomite primarily signifies a significant enhancement of KDK's inherent financial attributes. Holders no longer need to trade off between "ecosystem participation" and "efficiency in releasing funds." Instead, they can retain their KDK exposure while releasing liquidity through collateralized lending for trading, market making, or participation in other Berachain native protocols. This structure directly increases the frequency of KDK usage and on-chain turnover.
More importantly, this integration has structural significance for the Kodiak and Berachain ecosystems. On the one hand, KDK becoming a collateralizable asset helps embed the Kodiak protocol itself into a broader funding cycle, enabling closer financial linkages between DEX, Perps, and the lending market. On the other hand, this closed loop of "protocol token → lending layer → trading layer" helps attract more professional and large-scale funds into the ecosystem, rather than just short-term liquidity.
From a longer-term perspective, KDK's integration with Dolomite signifies that the Berachain ecosystem is building a more complete financial pathway. As native protocol tokens can be repeatedly used across multiple core DeFi modules, the ecosystem's capital efficiency and retention capabilities will improve. This not only enhances KDK's long-term usability but also further solidifies Kodiak's core position as Berachain's liquidity and funding hub.
Conclusion
Driven by a series of updates, Kodiak is gradually expanding from a spot liquidity hub to the perpetual contract market, the lending layer, and then to a staking and incentive system built around trading activities, forming a core financial infrastructure with depth, frequency, and capital circulation capabilities on top of Berachain.
With the gradual implementation of multi-asset perpetual contracts, collateralizable protocol tokens, and incentive structures oriented towards real trading volume, Berachain's financial ecosystem is evolving towards a more mature market model, characterized by higher capital efficiency, clearer risk pricing, and an operating environment more suitable for long-term participation by professional funds.
Looking ahead, as more trading scenarios and funding channels are activated, Kodiak is expected to continue to play a key role in Berachain's liquidity and derivatives markets. Meanwhile, the Berachain ecosystem itself is transitioning from the infrastructure development phase to a new growth cycle driven by real trading demand. This evolution may become the core of its long-term competitiveness.
