Wise Ties Most of His KMNO Allocation to Five Valuation Thresholds Reaching $10 Billion
Key Facts
Michael Wise, Kamino’s CEO, tied the vesting of most of his personal KMNO token allocation to reaching and maintaining a series of valuation thresholds, in a letter to token holders published on November 2, 2026. The thresholds, according to a Crypto Briefing report, correspond to fully diluted valuations of $1 billion, $2 billion, $3 billion, $5 billion and $10 billion. The arrangement makes Wise’s reward dependent on the token’s long-term performance rather than vesting solely on a time-based schedule. The conditions apply to his personal allocation and do not establish that the same arrangement applies to the team’s allocations. Wise announced the letter on X and linked its full text on Kamino’s blog.
Wise said the foundation will spend at least $20 million over the next two years to expand the assets available on Kamino and bring its credit and liquidity infrastructure to more platforms used by consumers. The pledge sets a minimum spending level, not a fixed total of $20 million. Wise tied the spending to expanding the platform’s use and making its infrastructure available through additional channels. The report did not say whether the money would be allocated to product development, partnerships or hiring. The pledge gives token holders an operational commitment, specifying what the foundation plans to spend and the direction in which it intends to channel that spending over the next two years.
The Kamino Foundation owns the protocol’s intellectual property and receives all of its revenue, including revenue from institutional partnerships, according to Wise. This structure gives the foundation a direct role in managing the assets and revenue associated with the protocol. But the use of revenue to support KMNO holders was not settled in the letter, according to a Solana Compass report. It remains unclear whether surplus funds will reach them through buybacks or distributions, or remain with the foundation to finance growth. The announcement therefore leaves open the question of a direct financial link between the foundation’s revenue and the token’s value, while the spending pledge directs some resources toward expansion.
Wise said KMNO is Kamino’s only token, and that the founders, investors, team and CEO tie their gains to the same token held by the community. He added: "None of us has a separate equity allocation." This framing provides context for the incentive model Wise described, placing project participants and token holders in the same asset, according to his letter. However, the published threshold details apply to Wise’s personal allocation, and the report does not specify the vesting terms for other parties’ allocations. The five thresholds, from $1 billion to $10 billion in fully diluted valuation, remain the announced framework for vesting most of his allocation.
The pledge comes as Kamino has said its protocol originated $21 billion in on-chain loans through August 2026, with no lender bad debt as of that date. In September, the company described its credit platform as managing $2 billion in assets when it announced lending vaults managed by Galaxy. Assets deposited in the platform’s Auto category also rose from $9.39 million on September 21 to $98.53 million on October 21, according to Kamino. In October, the company said about $50 million in tokenized stocks had been deposited on its platform, making it the largest among on-chain lending protocols by that measure. These indicators provide context for the expansion of assets and credit and liquidity infrastructure that the foundation has pledged to fund.
Kamino is working to make its products available through banks, brokerage firms and wallets, according to Wise, allowing users to earn yield on their money or borrow against assets they own. On October 27, the company announced that the Solflare Earn service lets users deposit USDC into a Kamino-backed vault within the wallet. In Wise’s letter, the next direction is to expand the assets that can be used on the platform and bring its infrastructure to more consumer platforms. Kamino has also said its next phase includes providing fixed-rate liquidity for additional markets and maturities. This places the two-year spending pledge within a stated effort to expand access to credit and liquidity, while the letter did not set a later deadline for carrying out these plans.
On the token-holder base, Solana Compass reported that more than 56,000 wallets held KMNO on November 2, 2026. The number of holder accounts rose by about 5% between early August and the date of the letter. The published information did not report a price reaction to the announcement. How the foundation’s revenue will be allocated to support holders remains unresolved, alongside details on how vesting terms apply beyond Wise’s personal allocation. The spending commitment is set to run for two years from November 2, 2026, while the letter gave no specific date for deciding how revenue will be used.