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Kaspa

KAS · Field entry
PaymentsPayments & money

A fair-launched proof-of-work coin that uses a blockDAG to confirm blocks very quickly

$0.04351.87%Snapshot · October 4, 2026 · updates live
Market cap
$1.20B
24h volume
$11.59M
Rank
#71
Circulating
27.74B KAS
Max supply
28.70B KAS
All-time high
$0.2074 July 31, 2024

KAS price chart

7-day snapshot. Chart data from CoinGecko.

What is Kaspa?

Kaspa is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency launched in November 2021 with no premine or token sale. Instead of a single chain of blocks, it uses a blockDAG that lets many blocks be created in parallel, producing 10 blocks per second. KAS is mainly used as fast peer-to-peer digital money, and a 2026 upgrade added basic programmability.

Utility Lens

What Kaspa actually does

Kaspa aims to offer Bitcoin-style proof-of-work security with confirmations in seconds rather than minutes.

Real-world usage
earlyThe network is fast and live, but most KAS use is trading and holding, with limited evidence of payment adoption or applications so far.
Token necessity
essentialKAS is the only asset on the network, pays all fees and is the reward that keeps miners securing it.
Decentralization
moderateKaspa had no premine and no controlling company, but mining is dominated by a few ASIC makers and large pools and core development relies on a small group of contributors.
Track record
developingLive since November 2021 with no major network halt reported, Kaspa has gone through two big hard forks in 2025 and 2026 that changed its core rules.

How we rate

What it’s used for

Most KAS activity is holding, trading and peer-to-peer transfers, along with mining using specialized ASIC machines. Merchant payment use exists but is small. Since the Toccata upgrade in June 2026, developers can build token and contract-like features on the base layer, but that ecosystem is still very young.

Role of the KAS token:

paymentsgasstore of value

Evidence of real use

  • The Crescendo hard fork was scheduled to activate on mainnet on May 5, 2025, raising Kaspa's block rate from 1 to 10 blocks per second. Source
  • The Toccata hard fork activated on June 30, 2026, adding native covenants and zero-knowledge proof verification to Kaspa's base layer. Source
  • Kaspa's maximum supply is approximately 28.7 billion KAS with no plans to increase it. Source

How Kaspa works

In Bitcoin, if two miners find a block at the same time, one block is thrown away. Kaspa instead keeps both by using a structure called a blockDAG (a directed acyclic graph), where each new block can point to several earlier blocks. A rule called GHOSTDAG then puts all of those blocks into one agreed order, so the network can create blocks very quickly without wasting miners' work or weakening security.

Kaspa is secured by proof of work using a hashing algorithm called kHeavyHash. Miners, now mostly running specialized ASIC machines, compete to create blocks and earn newly issued KAS plus the fees users pay. Since the Crescendo upgrade in May 2025 the network targets 10 blocks per second, and transactions typically receive their first confirmations within a second or so, far faster than Bitcoin.

Kaspa started as a pure payment network. The Toccata hard fork on June 30, 2026 added covenants, which are rules attached to coins about how they can be spent next, plus verification of zero-knowledge proofs. Together these let developers build tokens and contract-like apps directly on Kaspa's coin model, though the tools and apps are still at an early stage.

Key moments

  1. 2021Kaspa launches on November 7 with no premine, presale or founder allocation.
  2. 2025The Crescendo hard fork raises the block rate from 1 to 10 blocks per second in May.
  3. 2026The Toccata hard fork activates on June 30, adding covenants and zero-knowledge proof verification.

Supply

Kaspa's maximum supply is about 28.7 billion KAS. New coins are paid to miners on a schedule that reduces the reward a little every month, halving it roughly once a year, so most of the supply has already been issued. There is no premine, team allocation or token burn.

Risks to understand

  • Unproven demand: aside from trading, real payment and app usage of Kaspa is still limited.
  • Mining concentration: a handful of ASIC manufacturers and mining pools account for most hashrate.
  • Small development base: core work depends on a relatively small group of researchers and volunteer developers.
  • Upgrade risk: two major consensus changes in two years increase the chance of new bugs.
  • Exchange and liquidity risk: KAS trades on fewer major US-regulated platforms than older coins, and its price can swing sharply.

Kaspa FAQ

What makes Kaspa different from Bitcoin?

Both use proof-of-work mining, but Kaspa's blockDAG lets it create 10 blocks per second instead of one about every 10 minutes, so confirmations are much faster.

Was Kaspa premined?

No. It launched in November 2021 with no premine, presale or reserved founder coins; all KAS has come from mining.

Can Kaspa run smart contracts?

Since the Toccata hard fork in June 2026, Kaspa supports covenants and zero-knowledge proof verification, which allow token and contract-like features, but the ecosystem is still very new.

Sources

  1. Tokenomics — Kaspa Wiki
  2. Crescendo Hard Fork — Kaspalytics
  3. Kaspa Covenants++ 'Toccata' Hard-Fork Outlook — Michael Sutton (Kaspa core developer)
  4. Inside Kaspa's Toccata Hard Fork and Its Bet on Becoming a Smart Contract Platform — Cryptonews.net
  5. History of Kaspa and Fair Launch — KasLens

Last reviewed October 4, 2026 by The Crypto Guide editorial team. Utility Lens ratings are editorial judgments, not investment advice. Market data from CoinGecko. Spot an error? Request a correction.