KNC is the native cryptocurrency of the Kyber Network, an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange that aggregates liquidity (cash for executing trades) and facilitates instant swaps for ether and ERC-20 tokens.

After an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 that raised $60 million, the project was launched in early 2018. The network is open source and governed by the KyberDAO, a decentralized community of KNC token holders who stake their tokens (deposit them into a smart contract) and collectively vote and decide on future developments.

In April 2021, KyberDAO approved an upgrade and migration of KNC to a new token contract that it said would support more efficient upgrades.

KNC uses the ERC-20 token standard – a checklist of functions set by the Ethereum blockchain for making tokens that are compatible with the broader Ethereum ecosystem – and it doesn’t have a supply cap.

In September 2017, 74.8 million KNC were sold in a private sale or distributed to early investors in a move that yielded 104,054 ETH. ETH is Ethereum’s native token. A public sale that same month helped the team sell another 57.6 million tokens to raise an extra 95.946 ETH.

The team and advisers initially received about 42 million KNC, with the supply unlocking over a two-year vesting period, which concluded in September 2019. A total of 9.8 million tokens were initially held in reserve for new team members.

There is also a token reserve – established in 2017 at 42.6 million KNC – to fund future operations.

The post-migration KNC recorded an all-time high of $2.40 in November 2021, and an all-time low price of $1.32 in September 2021.

Like the prices of most other cryptocurrencies, KNC’s price has experienced only two significant peaks during the course of the token’s history. The first occurred in January 2018, following the 2017 crypto boom, where KNC price topped out at its all-time high of $5.98. The second occurred in May 2021, when the second big crypto bull run took over the market and KNC’s price peaked at $4.32.

Kyber Network uses a diverse set of liquidity pools called “reserves.” Liquidity pools are a feature of many decentralized exchanges where users deposit select pairs of crypto assets into trading pools that other people can use to trade against. Those who provide the liquidity receive a share of transaction fees charged to anyone who uses the pools to trade tokens.

While market markers, token projects, liquidity pools and token holders provide aggregated liquidity to the reserves, so-called “takers’' such as decentralized applications, exchanges and wallets can access and trade the assets contained in the reserves.

The Kyber Network is an implementation of the Kyber protocol. As a protocol, Kyber powers various services across multiple blockchains, such as YOLOSwap on EOS and TomoSwap on TomoChain. On Ethereum, it is known as the Kyber Network. In addition, developers can integrate the protocol into decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and crypto wallets.

Kyber Network is fully built on-chain without off-chain components to provide instant settlement of token-to-token transactions. It benefits from all the functionality provided by the Ethereum blockchain, including smart contracts.

Kyber Network was founded in Singapore in 2017 by Loi Luu, Victor Tran and Yaron Velner. As of November 2021, Luu and Tran were still on the project’s board. Velner left Kyber Network as its chief technology officer in October 2019 and is now the CEO of B.Protocol, a firm that develops DeFi protocols.

The Kyber Network project secured $60 million in funding in its 2017 ICO. Notable investors then included IOSG Ventures, 8 Decimal Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Chain Capital, Hashed, Fundamental Labs, individual investor Julian Sarokin, Amino Capital and Plasma Capital.