Following the storyline of Kujira, we take a glance at what the Kujira x THORChain partnership will offer to both communities.
Team Kujira’s Timeline
Where It All Started
Originally built on Terra, Kujira began its journey into the DeFi world in late 2020 with the introduction of Orca, its pioneering flagship product that democratized the exclusive world of Liquidation Bidding. Orca became the first blockchain platform to grant retail users access to discounted bids on defaulted loans, a privilege traditionally reserved for insiders. Its successful launch seeded a dedicated community of DeFi enthusiasts with a shared vision of a more equitable financial landscape.
Then, in May 2022, Kujira faced its first major obstacle: the collapse of Terra — a black swan event that, within days, wiped out approximately $45 billion of market cap, leaving an entire ecosystem of builders devastated.
“Everyone Can Be a Whale”: Kujira’s Terra → Cosmos Pivot
During this period of extreme uncertainty, Kujira stepped up, immediately engaging the community and assessing paths forward. Quickly, they proposed a revival plan; and, in just six weeks — with no external funding — Team Kujira:
Launched its own Layer 1 on Cosmos;
Executed a successful migration; and,
Became one of the first and only Terra survivors to make users whole.
With a new home came a renewed vision and a stronger sense of community, giving rise to the mantra: “Everyone Can Be a Whale”. This successful pivot marked the transformation from a single liquidation tool into what became known as “Grown-up DeFi”: a full-fledged suite of interconnected FinTech tools centered around ethical, community-driven, and sustainable decentralized finance.
Over the following year-and-a-half bear market, Kujira would build and deploy a number of products, including an on-chain order book, an in-house money market, and more. These will be listed and described below.
The Rujira Merger
Recent Events
Last month, it was announced that Kujira would merge with THORChain. The driving catalyst behind this merger was the 95% decrease in the price of $KUJI from its all-time high (this came as a fallout from bad debt caused by the former core team’s mismanagement of assets — for further reading, see: Kujira announcement).
As a show of good faith, cofounder of THORChain, JPThor, committed — using his personal funds — to backstopping Kujira’s Pilot sale, itself an effort to cover the bad debt. Additionally, a deal was struck to merge Kujira’s suite into THORChain’s upcoming App Layer; to this end, Kujira’s core developers will also be onboarded (for further reading, see: Kujira Winkhub Article).
Despite the mistakes made by the prior team, the spirit and momentum of the Kujira community remain strong. With its innovative and cohesive DeFi ecosystem, the newly announced partnership with THORChain opens an exciting new chapter with promising opportunities for both parties.
Kujira x THORChain Synergy
But what will these two solutions actually solve for one another? Aside from the fact that this partnership will provide real-yield rewards to THORChain by distributing 50% of core Kujira dAPP revenue to $RUNE bonders/LPs, we would do well here to also look at what THORChain will offer Kujira, as well as what other benefits Kujira will bring to THORChain.
THORChain — the sovereign, unprecedented blockchain that it is — stands out from most other general-purpose Layer-1 solutions due to the fact that its design is purposed to perform a (heretofore-unseen) set of distinct tasks:
- direct connections to native tokens on external chains
- cross-chain swaps
- liquidity provision
- savings and lending services
In short, THORChain has solved the native-liquidity problem for interoperability; and Kujira stands to benefit from this immensely.
It should be noted here that the above functionalities, rather than being deployed on smart contracts, are directly integrated into the core THORChain codebase. This is because THORChain is not equipped with generic smart contract capabilities (e.g. CosmWasm), which does create certain limitations in what it is able to offer.
It also means that THORChain must address economic security more creatively than its counterparts. Where most liquidity platforms utilize wrapped tokens — which, in the event of an exploit, can be rendered worthless — an attack on THORChain (e.g. a native BTC or ETH drain) would still allow the perpetrator to benefit from the stolen funds. Consequently, any developments on THORChain are approached with extreme caution to ensure the highest level of security (to this end, THORChain has since 2021 deployed an always-on security detail: THORSec).
Still, it’s logical to develop an App Layer with CosmWasm functionality — to boot, one supported by seasoned Kujira developers who possess extensive experience in this field. And, to mitigate risk exposure to THORChain’s core layer, assets could be bridged to the App Layer, if desired.
For Kujira, this merger provides a piece of the puzzle that was always missing. Specifically, building on THORChain offers one of the most liquid, high-volume environments of standardized native assets and cross-chain interoperability in the decentralized world. With this combination of features, Kujira will be able to resolve some of its most prominent pain points and finally fulfill its promise of becoming a state-of-the-art DeFi experience.
Core Kujira DeFi Suite: Protocols + Features
Here we provide a (hyperlinked) list of the core Kujira dApps that may soon be the first inhabitants of THORChain’s App Layer.
Fin Exchange
Description: CEX-like on-chain order book
Features:
🔹 Isolated margin trading
🔹 Non-inflationary maker-taker fee incentive model
Ghost Money Market
Description: Flexible lending and borrowing market
Features:
🔹 Over Collateralized loans
🔹 Dynamic interest rates
🔹 Orca integration
Notes:
🔸 “xAssets” receipt system upon lending. Provides the user a derivative representation of their lending position. Earning interest from borrow fees while remaining liquid for use in other DeFi products.
Orca Liquidations
Description: Decentralized liquidation bidding
Features:
🔹 Dutch-auction liquidation mechanism (described earlier)
🔹 Bot-resistant liquidation bidding
🔹 Efficient and customizable liquidation process
Notes:
🔸 Supports xAssets, allowing users to bid on discounted liquidations while earning lending interest.
Pilot Launchpad
Description: Decentralized, fair-launch launchpad
Features:
🔹 Utilizes Orca queue mechanism
🔹 Customizable launch-parameters
Notes:
🔸 Low technical threshold, high strategy launch
🔸 More efficient, quicker price discovery with better distribution
🔸 Personalized entry based on user-defined risk tolerance
Sonar Wallet
Description: All-in-one DeFi app
Features:
🔹 Integration of Kujira and community dApps
🔹 Passkey support
🔹In-app DAO management
Notes:
🔸 *Only in beta*
🔸 Real world payments vehicle
Like THORChain’s, The Kujira Community is Active
As the Kujira community — built on the foundational principles of collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity — is an integral part of the project’s ecosystem, community members are truly more than just ‘users’. This atmosphere fosters creativity and collaboration, frequently facilitating direct interaction between the community and the core team to spearhead exciting initiatives. In fact, a number of community members are active, developing contributors who not only are deeply engaged in the project’s growth and success, but also supplement, in more ways than one, Kujira’s core dApp offerings.
Below is a (hyperlinked) list of some promising community-led projects.
Kujira Community Projects
The Academy
🔹 Educational Hub
Aqualibre ($AQLA)
🔹 RWA Carbon Trading
AutoKujira ($AUTO)
🔹 All-in-one automated and simplified Kujira strategies
Boon
🔹 SocialFi, P2P marketing & micro-influencing platform
Calc Finance
🔹 Advanced DCA strategies
Fuzion ($FUZN)
🔹 Various DeFi Tools
KujiraIndex
🔹 Protocol for asset indices + crypto ETFs
MantaDAO ($MNTA)
🔹 Liquidity router and market maker
Nami ($NAMI)
🔹 Interest on stablecoin deposits
Unstake Finance ($NSTK)
🔹 Instant unstaking
WinkHub ($WINK)
🔹 Content hub and RWA NFT Marketplace
Conclusion
The “RUJIRA” partnership marks an exciting path forward for Kujira and THORChain as they continue to evolve the DeFi landscape. By combining Kujira’s innovative products with THORChain’s robust liquidity solutions, this collaboration becomes more than a strategic alliance. As they join forces, both communities may look forward to building a bankless future where financial opportunity is inclusive and fair for all.
Please feel welcome to join the THORChain University Discord to chat about this topic or any other THORChain interest you may have.
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