kpk Launches Governance Token to Expand Its Reach and Community Participation

kpk, formerly known as karpatkey, the industry leader in non-custodial DeFi asset management

Non-custodial DeFi asset management firm kpk, formerly known as karpatkey, has announced the official launch of its governance token, KPK.

This milestone marks the completion of a key organizational ambition that has guided progress since the organization's inception, kicking off a new era for kpk’s governance, expanded participation, and long-term scalability.

The token will serve as a new governance mechanism created to support the DAO. With a total supply of 1 billion KPK tokens, the launch sets the stage for a more inclusive and dynamic decision-making framework, involving contributors, investors, and community stakeholders.

Founded in 2021 within the Gnosis ecosystem, kpk is a trusted partner for onchain asset management with top DAOs including Aave, Safe, Lido, Arbitrum, ENS, Balancer and CoW. Originally designed with decentralisation in mind, the organization’s growth—cash flow positive and now boasting over 50 contributors—has laid the groundwork for a sustainable, community-driven governance structure.

“We’ve spent the last several years proving the strength of our model,” said Marcelo Ruiz de Olano, Co-Founder of kpk. “The launch of KPK is the culmination of all our efforts to establish our products, partners and reputation across the industry. With this new organizational structure and governance mechanism, we can better extend our services into traditional finance, bringing greater liquidity to DeFi.”

The KPK token will serve as the exclusive instrument for governance within the DAO. At launch, the token will have limited transferability, with no exchange listings. With the permission of the DAO foundation, investors could transfer token ownership to pre-approved third parties. The token has been distributed through internal channels such as contributor vesting, investor allocation, token swaps, and airdrops to key partners. Full token transferability will occur at a future date determined by the kpk DAO.

The kpk DAO Governance Forum will serve as the hub for community discussion. The forum is already live, including information about governance processes and templates for new proposals. Social and on-chain governance will be coordinated via Snapshot and Tally.

“From the beginning, active participation in DAO governance has been a core element of our approach to asset management,” said Alice Corsini, Governance Specialist at kpk. “Just as we seek to be active participants in the governance process for the DAO’s we serve, we also want our growing community of stakeholders to have a place in the governance of kpk.”

Along with its rebrand from karpatkey to kpk, the organization is accelerating its M&A activities, pioneering a new investment strategy: token-for-equity swaps. By exchanging KPK tokens for ownership stakes in high-potential crypto companies, kpk is strengthening its network of partners and driving the next phase of growth for decentralised finance.

“We invest in established, long-standing partners who are leaders in their fields and essential to our mission of scaling DeFi,” noted Marcelo Ruiz de Olano. “At the same time, we ensure they have meaningful ownership of KPK, reinforcing kpk’s position as the leading provider of onchain, non-custodial asset management solutions.”

The first of these transactions was completed with Hypernative, a leader in real-time Web3 monitoring and response. By swapping KPK tokens for Hypernative equity, kpk has forged a long-term, partnership.

Besides Hypernative, kpk has stakes in early-stage projects like Lagoon Finance and Resolv, combining strategic KPK token deployments with selective cash investments. These moves reflect a broader expansion into crypto M&A, with plans to continue identifying and backing teams that align with kpk’s infrastructure and values.

With the DAO governance model now fully operational upon the KPK token launch, kpk is opening the doors to a new wave of contributors, community participants, and strategic collaborators. The timeline for enabling token transferability and broader stakeholder participation will be determined by governance, after a checklist of operational milestones and external integrations is completed.

In the meantime, kpk is focused on ensuring a smooth, secure, and scalable expansion of its platform—maintaining its position at the forefront of DeFi treasury innovation.