Kadena Public Chain Launches $50 Million Incentive Program, Focusing on the RWA Track

Established in 2016, the veteran public blockchain Kadena recently announced an incentive program of up to $50 million, seemingly aimed at regaining attention in the cryptocurrency market through the currently popular RWA track. After a period of silence, this series of new dynamics from Kadena has sparked widespread discussion in the industry. This article will delve into Kadena's recent strategic moves, its historical development, and its unique technological architecture, while exploring whether this large-scale incentive program can bring new development opportunities and its potential in the RWA field.

The Development History and Technological Innovations of Kadena

Kadena was co-founded in 2016 by Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino. Both founders have extensive experience in the financial industry and have been involved in the development of blockchain-related projects at a large bank. This blockchain practice experience, stemming from within traditional financial giants, has imbued Kadena with an "enterprise-level" or "institutional-level" design philosophy from the very beginning.

Kadena's core technological innovation lies in its unique Chainweb architecture, which is a scalable, multi-chain parallel proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism. Chainweb is not a single blockchain, but rather a network of multiple independent, concurrently operating peer chains interconnected through a "weaving" method. Each chain mines independently and can process transactions in parallel. This design approach is also significantly different from other types of PoW chains on the market, thus, Kadena positions itself as the only programmable L1.

Under this design architecture, Kadena theoretically has a very high throughput. In 2020, with the expansion to 20 chains, Kadena claimed that the theoretical TPS reached 480,000. This data value far exceeds that of other public chains at the same time, including a certain well-known public chain renowned for its speed.

With its unique technological advantages, Kadena once became a star among public chains since its establishment. In 2021, its token price peaked at $27, an increase of over 100 times compared to $0.2 at the beginning of 2020, with a market capitalization that once approached $4 billion. Additionally, the Kadena network quickly expanded to 20 chains at its launch, becoming the fastest POW public chain at that time.

$50 Million Incentive Program: Bet on RWA

However, Kadena's brilliance gradually faded with the end of the bull market in 2021. Since 2021, its price has plummeted significantly, and its market value has dropped to around $150 million. Its official media accounts have not been updated since 2023, and there is little news about Kadena on social media.

On May 20, 2025, Kadena announced the launch of a $50 million incentive program aimed at promoting the development of Chainweb EVM, RWA tokenization, and AI-driven blockchain solutions. This news has also brought the market's attention back to this well-established public blockchain.

According to official information, $25 million of the total $50 million fund pool will be specifically used to support compliant RWA tokenization projects. The remaining $25 million will be used to support projects built on the Kadena multi-chain EVM-compatible network (Chainweb EVM) as well as AI integration projects. This funding is non-equity support, meaning that the funded projects do not need to give up equity.

The first RWA domain beneficiary of Kadena's new incentive program is CurveBlock, a UK-based company that received a grant of $400,000 in June 2025. Founded in 2018, CurveBlock is a UK proptech startup focused on sustainable real estate investment. In terms of background, CurveBlock is the first real estate company to be accepted into the UK Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS)). This also means that the reason CurveBlock was able to become Kadena's first grant recipient is closely related to compliance.

In addition, Kadena proposes to provide not only financial support but also technical assistance, project development advice, marketing, and promotion.

RWA has become a popular sector in the market in recent years, with many established public chains actively seeking transformation through this narrative. In addition to launching incentive programs, Kadena has also recently developed an RWA token standard based on its native smart contract language Pact, which references Ethereum's EIP-3643. This standard aims to enforce on-chain permissions and regulatory controls, supporting compliant asset issuance, trading, and redemption.

Previously, a $100 million incentive failed, making the funding plan a challenge.

It is worth noting that the $50 million incentive program launched by Kadena is not the first of its kind. In 2022, during a period of overall market decline and reduced attention, Kadena had also launched an incentive program with a total amount of up to $100 million, aimed at funding the development and adoption of projects in the Kadena ecosystem related to gaming, the metaverse, NFTs, Web3, DeFi, and DAOs.

According to Kadena's official annual review at the end of 2022, the $100 million incentive program received "overwhelming attention and hundreds of applications," with "a total of 9 projects among the first batch of fund recipients," some of which have already "achieved extraordinary results." However, no overall situation report on the incentive program has been found subsequently, and specific funding amounts were not mentioned during the announcement of each funded project.

From the performance of the data, the $100 million incentive plan did not manage to enhance Kadena's market attention and community activity. On one hand, its price is still on a continuous decline, while on the other hand, the only visible data related to TVL on the network has dropped to several hundred thousand dollars, reaching its lowest point in 2023. As of June 13, its TVL was only $940,000, and the market value of stablecoins was approximately $180,000.

Returning to the current $50 million incentive program, the market cycle being launched is also remarkably similar to that of 2022. Both occur after the first peak of a bull market. However, we currently cannot predict whether the subsequent market cycle will replicate the overall bear market of 2021-2022 or open up a new, larger market cycle. Nevertheless, to some extent, Kadena's incentive measures may face another challenge if it encounters a market trend similar to that of 2022.

In addition, unlike other public chains that directly incentivize users, Kadena's incentives are more aimed at project parties. In the absence of a user base, project parties may face greater investment risks when choosing Kadena solely for uncertain incentives. Furthermore, examining some of the user-oriented promotional programs launched by Kadena, the content of the incentives requires at least 4 weeks of promotion followed by a lottery, where 50 lucky winners can receive 40 KDA. Based on the current price of KDA at 0.48 USD, users may ultimately receive less than 20 USD in rewards for a month's promotion, making the cost-effectiveness of this incentive somewhat lacking.

Therefore, although the narrative of RWA is popular and the incentive of 50 million USD is substantial, it seems that Kadena currently needs to consider how to gain market and community recognition in a more sincere manner. Otherwise, this time's 50 million USD incentive may face significant challenges again.