What is Kaito in crypto?

Kaito is a crypto information platform that uses AI to track what people are saying about crypto projects and turn that attention into data, marketing and token sales. It calls this idea InfoFi, short for information finance. CoinGecko reports that Kaito was founded in Seattle in 2022 by Yu Hu. It also has its own token, KAITO.

What is Kaito AI?

Kaito's documentation lists three main products. Kaito Pro is an AI search engine for crypto that indexes sources such as social media, governance forums, research, news and podcasts. Kaito Capital Launchpad runs token sales that allocate places based on a user's reputation, onchain holdings and past participation, rather than first come, first served. Kaito Studio matches brands with creators and tracks how campaigns perform.

Much of this rests on crypto Twitter, the X community where projects and traders discuss crypto. Kaito measures each project's share of that conversation, which it calls mindshare.

What were Kaito Yaps and why did they end?

Yaps was a points system that scored X users on how much attention their crypto posts drew. Projects then rewarded high-scoring posters, often with tokens. Early Yappers were among those who received KAITO in its airdrop.

On January 15, 2026, CoinDesk reported that X had changed its developer rules to ban apps that pay users for posting, citing a flood of AI-generated replies and spam, and had cut off their programmatic access. Founder Yu Hu said a fully open, incentive-driven model was no longer workable, and Kaito announced it would shut down Yaps and its incentive rankings. In their place came Kaito Studio, which works with selected creators and also covers YouTube and TikTok. CoinGecko says Studio entered beta in February 2026.

What is the KAITO token used for?

According to Kaito's docs, KAITO is the main medium of exchange inside its network, lets holders influence how attention is distributed, and allows them to propose and vote on protocol and algorithm changes.

The token went live on February 20, 2025 as an ERC-20 token on Base, with a fixed supply of 1 billion, The Block reported. Ten percent went to an initial community airdrop for early Yappers, Genesis NFT holders and partners, and another 2 percent to a Binance holder program. Core contributors received 25 percent and early backers 8.3 percent, with the rest split among ecosystem growth, creator incentives, liquidity and the Kaito Foundation.

The KAITO token's price has been volatile, and like any token it can lose most of its value. How a token's supply is split and released is explained in what is tokenomics.