Kaia to count JPYC deposits for contribution rewards, burn 2.46 million KAIA on Oct. 21

The Kaia Foundation said on Oct. 14 it will burn 2,463,579 KAIA left unpaid from the first epoch of its Contribution Reward (CR) program on Oct. 21, according to its Epoch 2 monthly report posted on the Kaia governance forum. A participation guide published on the official Kaia blog the same day said JPYC, a yen-pegged stablecoin, deposited on Unifi will count as a contribution starting with Epoch 4, which begins Oct. 21.

Only 58,000 KAIA of a 2.5 million KAIA budget paid out

Kaia launched Contribution Rewards in July, replacing the Proposal Reward that had paid out 10% of block rewards. Its first program, CR Mission 1, pays extra KAIA to users who stake KAIA, delegating it to earn rewards, and deposit Kaia-native USDT on SuperEarn or Unifi from the same wallet. Each 1 USDT counts only if it is matched by 10 staked KAIA.

The foundation sets a monthly budget of 2.5 million KAIA and pays out only in proportion to how much of a 50 million USDT cap the recognized deposits fill. Whatever is left is burned rather than redistributed to other participants. In Epoch 2, which ran from Aug. 22 to Sept. 21, recognized deposits averaged 1,168,662 USDT, or 2.34% of the cap. Participating wallets rose by 121 to 829 from 708 in Epoch 1, and payouts totaled 58,433 KAIA. The remaining 2,441,567 KAIA, or 97.7% of the budget, was set aside for burning.

Wallets staking KAIA with the Unifi node, formerly LINE NEXT Inc., accounted for 77.3% of recognized deposits, or 903,287 USDT. Hashkey followed with 10.1%.

Unpaid KAIA burned two epochs later

The foundation burns each epoch's unpaid amount in an on-chain transaction once two more epochs have passed. Epoch 1's 2,463,579 KAIA burns on Oct. 21, when Epoch 3 ends, and Epoch 2's 2,441,567 KAIA on Nov. 21, when Epoch 4 ends. Together, 4,905,146 KAIA is awaiting burn. The foundation said it will disclose the burn transaction and cumulative burn total in that month's report once each burn is executed.

JPYC converted to dollars before matching

Epoch 4 starts at block 230,342,400, which the foundation expects to reach at 9:40 a.m. KST on Oct. 21. Only JPYC deposited on Unifi qualifies, and JPYC simply held in a wallet does not. Deposits made during Epochs 1 through 3 will not count retroactively.

JPYC has no separate matching ratio. It is converted to its USDT value, and the existing 1-to-10 ratio applies. The conversion uses the period average of the JPYC/USDT price recorded daily by price oracle Orakl Network. A weaker yen shrinks the recognized amount for the same JPYC, while a stronger yen raises both the recognized amount and the KAIA required. The foundation advised users to stake extra KAIA to allow for exchange-rate swings. Rewards will still be paid in KAIA, and JPYC has no separate budget, sharing the same 50 million USDT cap as USDT. "This is still an early stage compared with the target TVL, and activating participation remains the top priority," the foundation wrote in the Epoch 2 report.

KAIA down about a third from first-day high, five days after Upbit listing

KAIA was added to Upbit's Korean won market on Oct. 9 and also trades on Bithumb's won market. On Upbit's daily chart, it hit 92.3 won on its first day before falling as low as 59.4 won on Oct. 13. At 10:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 14, it traded at 62 won on Upbit, down 2.5% from the previous day. The Binance price at the same time, $0.0459, converts to about 61.5 won at an exchange rate of around 1,340 won per dollar, putting the Upbit price about 0.7% higher.