Kelp DAO 

KEP 

What is the Kelp DAO restaking protocol?

Kelp DAO is a liquid restaking protocol built on EigenLayer for Ethereum. Users deposit ETH or liquid staking tokens and receive rsETH, a liquid restaked token that stays usable across DeFi. In 2025 the project expanded into the KernelDAO ecosystem, spanning Kelp (rsETH), Gain, and Kernel on BNB Chain. KEP ("Kelp Earned Points") is the protocol's experimental points token — the first tokenized representation of EigenLayer Points, launched February 28, 2024. KEP is not a governance token; the ecosystem's governance token is KERNEL.

KEP (Kelp Earned Points): what is it?

KEP is Kelp DAO's experimental points token, launched on February 28, 2024 as the first tokenized representation of EigenLayer Points. One KEP corresponds to one EigenLayer Point. KEP was announced on February 20, 2024 and distributed by claim rather than continuous minting. Its use case was time-bound to the pre-EIGEN era: from March 2025, holders could redeem 1 KEP for 1 claimed EIGEN from EigenLayer Season 1. KEP carries no governance rights — that role belongs to KERNEL.

Is Kelp DAO the same as KernelDAO?

KernelDAO is the expanded ecosystem that Kelp DAO became part of in 2025; the former kelpdao.xyz domain redirects to kerneldao.com as part of the rebrand. The ecosystem covers three products: Kelp (rsETH liquid restaking), Gain, and Kernel on BNB Chain. Governance sits with KERNEL, which held its TGE on April 14, 2025 via Binance's fourth Megadrop. KEP and KERNEL are separate assets — KERNEL is the governance token, KEP is the legacy points token.

What is rsETH and how does KEP relate to it?

rsETH is Kelp DAO's liquid restaked token. Holders deposit ETH or liquid staking tokens into Kelp and receive rsETH in return; the receipt token remains usable across DeFi while the underlying stake earns EigenLayer rewards. KEP tracked the EigenLayer Points earned through that restaking activity. The connection is financial as well: Kelp earmarked the 0.5% fee on KEP claims as extra incentives for rsETH restakers.

How is KEP's token supply structured?

KEP is a fixed-supply ERC-20 token on Ethereum with a maximum supply of 169,000,001 KEP, verifiable on Etherscan. KEP was claim-based rather than continuously minted — no emission schedule exists. At launch in February 2024, roughly 4.6 million KEP had been claimed out of more than 152 million earned by users. No circulating supply figure is published for KEP.

Does KEP have a vesting schedule or unlock risk?

KEP has no vesting schedule, no cliff periods, and no scheduled unlock dates — KEP was claim-based rather than an allocated TGE asset. Mechanical inflation risk is nil because the maximum supply is fixed. The closest analogue to an unlock worked in reverse: the 1:1 KEP-to-EIGEN redemption, live from March 2025, removed underlying value from KEP as holders exited. The May 2024 private sale allocated the future governance token, not KEP — any vesting on that round applies to KERNEL.

Who invested in Kelp DAO and what does the funding signal?

Per DropsTab data, Kelp DAO raised $9M in a private token sale announced May 22, 2024. SCB 10X, the venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank, and Laser Digital, Nomura's crypto arm, led the round with a combined $3.5M — traditional-finance leads backing a liquid restaking thesis. DWF Labs, HTX Ventures, GSR, Cypher Capital, Bankless Ventures and DACM participated; angels included Sam Kazemian and Marc Zeller. The Block reported a $90M fully diluted valuation. Stated use of funds: expanding liquid restaking beyond Ethereum to Bitcoin, Solana and BNB Chain.

Which airdrops and campaigns did Kelp DAO run?

All KEP-related campaigns have concluded. KEP claims opened February 27–28, 2024, with a 0.5% fee on each claim. Per DropsTab data, the protocol's listed airdrop campaign started May 6, 2024 and distributed rewards in USDC, Stader (SD), Optimism (OP), Arbitrum (ARB) and EigenLayer, tied to the rsETH/EigenLayer points program. In March 2025, Kelp enabled 1:1 redemption of KEP for EigenLayer Season 1 claimed EIGEN. The separate KERNEL airdrop of April 2025 belonged to the KERNEL asset, not KEP.

Can you trade KEP on exchanges?

KEP is not trading on any venue. DropsTab lists no spot, derivatives or DEX markets for KEP, and on-chain checks via DexScreener and Etherscan show no live pairs or recent transfers. Trading was DEX-only historically: at the February 2024 launch the sole pool was KEP/rsETH on Balancer, with roughly $257k of liquidity, plus pre-launch points speculation on Whales Market. KEP never listed on a centralized exchange — liquidity is effectively nonexistent, and the token is untradeable in practice.

What happened in the Kelp DAO bridge exploit?

On April 18, 2026, an attacker drained 116,500 rsETH, worth about $292M at the time, from Kelp's cross-chain bridge. The attacker exploited a LayerZero function to move the funds. The breach affected Kelp's protocol and rsETH holders rather than the KEP token directly, and it was a material security event for the wider Kelp/KernelDAO ecosystem.