DeFi Planet

London, United Kingdom, September 16th, 2025, Chainwire

Kintsu, a liquid staking protocol supported by investors including Castle Island Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, Spartan, Arche Capital, and F-Prime, has announced its expansion to Hyperliquid with the launch of sHYPE, now live on mainnet. The protocol aims to address fragmentation in decentralized finance (DeFi) through decentralized validator curation and composable staking tokens.

Kintsu is changing how liquid staking works on Hyperliquid by introducing a governance model that plays out like a game: delegates stake governance tokens and campaign for delegations by curating high performing validator teams. Validators compete for stake, delegates compete for reputation and voting power, and the entire system is driven by transparent performance. The result: validator performance fuels yield, and yield powers a more resilient, composable LST designed for the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

“By transforming simply staked assets into programmable collateral, we catalyze growth by infusing the highest risk-adjusted yields and boosting chain GDP. At scale, liquid staking must be controlled transparently and programmatically, it is necessary and inevitable that LSTs become truly community governed, not run in an opaque discretionary fashion. After two years of research and development, we are proud to announce that Kintsu is expanding to Hyperliquid and bringing a new level of resilience to liquid staking on the HyperEVM.” — Stephen, Founder of Kintsu.

Why Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid has emerged as one of DeFi’s most important hubs, averaging billions in daily trading volume and strengthened by HIP-3’s permissionless market creation. By launching sHYPE on Hyperliquid, Kintsu delivers:

Validator Competition and Yield Structure — The decentralized validator registry enables open competition among validators, with yields determined by performance metrics. Validator output directly influences yield distribution, which in turn underpins the sHYPE token model.
Composability and Integration — sHYPE is designed for direct integration with HyperEVM based decentralized finance applications and yield strategies. Through CoreWriter contracts, it also connects with Hyperliquid’s native staking layer, expanding interoperability across the ecosystem.
Liquidity and Governance Alignment — Unlike traditional locked staking mechanisms, sHYPE maintains liquidity for participants while supporting composable capital allocation. Governance structures oversee validator selection and curation, with the objective of ensuring transparency and incentive alignment across stakeholders.

Battle Pass Multiplier NFT

Over 300,000 participants engaged with the Beta Pass NFT, marking a significant milestone for the project. Building on this response, the team has introduced the Battle Pass Multiplier NFT.

Individuals who join the waitlist will be entered into a selection process for a Battle Pass. Participation can be increased through referrals, staking sHYPE, and engaging with supported integrations.

Selected participants will receive the Battle Pass Multiplier NFT, which provides 1.5x Kintsu Points, offering an early advantage in rank progression.

The initiative is designed around a community driven model of liquid staking, with validator performance and participant activity serving as key factors in shaping outcomes.

Users can join the waitlist today.

About Kintsu

Kintsu is a liquid staking protocol built to unify fragmented DeFi ecosystems. Through decentralized and gamified validator curation, composable staking tokens, and governance designed for credible neutrality, Kintsu is redefining validator alignment and protocol growth. Users can learn more at https://kintsu.xyz/