Katana – the blockchain of Polygon and GSR launches mainnet

The Blockchain Layer 2 Katana has officially launched its public mainnet, according to an announcement from Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal on Monday. He stated that Katana will usher in a new era for DeFi, changing the way users generate profits from assets through Agglayer's Vault Bridge.

Katana is incubated by Polygon Labs and the market-making company GSR, built on a customized version of the OP Stack called cdk-opgeth. This network connects to the Vault Bridge of Agglayer – a cross-chain interoperability protocol that enables connected blockchains to generate revenue from bridged assets.

Katana aims to address the fragmentation in traditional DeFi by concentrating liquidity from key protocols while reallocating yields into a sustainable mechanism to promote long-term growth.

Before its public launch, Katana deployed its own mainnet at the end of May, integrating various protocols such as the lending platform Morpho, the decentralized exchange Sushi, and the derivatives exchange Vertex. Additionally, Katana also supports Agora's stablecoin AUSD, Lombard's LBTC, and EtherFi's yield token weETH.

In the early launch phase, Katana allows users to deposit assets in advance to receive the native token KAT. According to Nailwal, just three weeks later, the network had attracted over 240 million USD in assets generating yield.

Katana is expected to become the liquidity hub for chains in the Agglayer ecosystem, while also providing significant fees for those staking POL tokens. In addition, the project plans to airdrop approximately 1.5 billion KAT (, equivalent to 15% of the total supply of 10 billion ) to the POL staking community.