Delta-neutral yield on Base. A modeled, deployed-basis APY of 4.91%
The figure above is organic carry alone. A funded genesis incentive of $333.43 sits escrowed on-chain and is deliberately NOT in it, because no distribution has been made from that escrow and there is no live path from it to a holder yet. Until one exists it is money on deposit, not a rate. Read the escrow, the mechanism and the last distribution the vault actually received at kerne.fi/api/apy. A delta-neutral basis trade: staked ETH yield plus Hyperliquid funding, net of costs. A live model of the book we run, not a realized payout, and it moves with funding. Full method at kerne.fi/api/apy. Verify the skUSD share price yourself at kerne.fi/verify-vault.
Our published feasibility analysis caps the sustainable through-cycle rate near 8 to 9.4 percent, on a levered design basis that the deployed book does not run. It is a ceiling on the design, not a rate on offer.
A three step proof
Mechanisms of Kerne
Each mechanism resolves to a live endpoint you can read yourself. Follow the line.
Every input behind the live APY
Computed every minute from Lido stETH staking and Hyperliquid 60 day trailing funding on the deployed basis, less strategy and insurance haircuts. Venue leverage cuts the margin posted rather than multiplying the carry. The methodology string at /api/apy names every input and constant it used.
/api/apyZero protocol fee
Every dollar of strategy yield that survives the strategy cost and insurance haircuts is paid to kUSD and skUSD holders. The performance fee in the live APY formula is zero. Verify in the protocolFee field at /api/apy.
/api/apyVerifiable risk surface
Solvency ratio, circuit breakers, vault pause state, and every off chain Sentinel constant published live at /api/risk-status. Each threshold names its source identifier; the chapter at /docs/exit-triggers-and-emergency-runbook ties every claim back to a contract or bot file.
/api/risk-statusFive URLs, not five claims.
Signed reserve self-attestation
Kerne signs its own reserves hourly with the strategist EOA. Reproducible, not independent: recover the signer yourself in three lines.
/api/por/signed02Live APY math
Every constant behind the displayed APY traces to a committed file, with the live JSON linked beside it.
/docs/live-apy-math03Live risk surface
Every wired threshold beside its live on-chain value and the source file you can grep. Aspirational items show as gaps, not hidden defaults.
/risk0424h funding forecast
The forecaster the bot uses to size its own hedge, published: next-day funding income, an 80% band, and its score against a naive baseline.
/forecast05Audit and sprint posture
Audits, security sprints, and past incidents documented openly, each with the recovery sprint that followed it.
/docs/security-and-auditsVisualize your yield
Mint kUSD with USDC at 1:1 through the Kerne PSM, then stake into skUSD, the staked, yield-bearing form of kUSD. Your kUSD stays fully backed and redeemable at any time, with no lockup and no cooldown. The swap fee applies in both directions, so the card shows what you get on the way in and on the way out.
Exit is not at par. The same tiered fee applies on the way out, so redeeming those ~9,990 kUSD returns ~9,980 USDC and the round trip costs about $19.99 at this size. No lockup and no cooldown, and how much can leave in a single transaction is published live on the reachable exit depth panel.
Dynamic Risk Mitigation
Oracle Guard
The router that would arbitrate Pyth against Chainlink is deployed but not wired into the live mint path. What is live today is the PSM's own one hour staleness check on its USDC price, which makes a mint revert rather than price off a stale feed.
Delta Neutrality
Kerne is designed to net out directional price risk with a short perpetual against ETH-exposed collateral. kUSD stays fully USDC-backed today, and the delta-neutral hedge runs live at pilot scale against a small disclosed founder float.
ERC-4626 Standard
skUSD is an ERC-4626 vault, source-verified on Sourcify, so any integrator can read its share price with the standard interface.
Every threshold that would force the protocol to protect principal is published with its source line, and every wired threshold has a current live value you can audit any time.
Kerne sells the verification it runs on itself.
The same signed proof-of-reserves stack you can check on this site, pointed at your reserves or a counterparty's.
Frequently Asked Questions
Audit status. Kerne has completed its first external audit. The Hexens final report published on July 31, 2026 and you can read it in full, with our response to every finding here. That is a review of five contracts at one commit, not a guarantee of safety, and the live vault runs earlier bytecode than the reviewed commit, which is why vault deposits are closed. Minting is open: the patched Peg Stability Module completed its cutover on July 10 and is live. If you would rather lock the current Opal multiplier now, without moving any funds, register your intended mint in the commit queue.
Kerne issues kUSD, a delta-neutral synthetic dollar on Base, and sells the reserve-verification work we built to check kUSD. The yield comes from perpetual funding and staking rewards rather than token emissions. We publish the modeled rate and the realized one side by side at kerne.fi/honesty-index. Full identity at kerne.fi/what-is-kerne. Unrelated to KernelDAO, Kernel Protocol, and Kernel Network: kerne.fi/kernel-vs-kerne, kerne.fi/not-kerneldao, kerne.fi/which-kusd-on-base.
Two sources: the funding rate perpetual longs pay, and Ethereum staking rewards. The published figure is a live model computed from the Lido staking rate and the Hyperliquid 60-day trailing funding rate. The hedge is sized one for one against spot, so the carry is multiplied by L/(L+1), which is below one. Every input, the withdrawn 3x target, and the escrowed Genesis incentive excluded from the rate sit at kerne.fi/api/apy.
Your entry is not a leveraged position: you mint kUSD 1:1 from USDC through the PSM, fully backed. The delta-neutral hedge is live at pilot scale only, sized against a small disclosed founder-custodied float. The insurance fund meant to absorb negative funding holds zero today, published every hour as insurance_fund_usd. Circuit breakers can pause the protocol. Solvency and reserves are published hourly at kerne.fi/api/por/signed.
No. Stake kUSD into skUSD, an ERC-4626 wrapper whose share price rises as the protocol distributes basis yield, and hold it. The hedge, the rebalancing, and the distributions are automated, and the hedge runs at pilot scale today while the book is seeded. You can redeem skUSD back to kUSD at any time, with no cooldown and no lockup, and kUSD stays redeemable for USDC through the PSM.
Base only, chain 8453. Mint kUSD 1:1 from USDC at the PSM, 0xaBDE1138aa1Ce88d1dF06422C0c3b05D70569803, at a size-tiered fee (10 bps base, 8 from $50,000, 7 from $250,000, 5 from $1,000,000, readable on chain via getFee). kUSD is 0x5C2EfdF0D8D286959b42308966bc2B97f5680AA3 and skUSD is 0x96F5102C15b839757f811A98CEc3725Ac21DfA14. The separate WETH vault is in protective mode. K Dollar, 0x6FB09847417e33A1CE75d3B324015D4C0AeF4D61, reports the same kUSD symbol on Base, so the address is the only reliable check: kerne.fi/which-kusd-on-base.
Mint kUSD with USDC through the PSM, then stake it into skUSD. Staking carries a 0% protocol fee for every holder, not just the earliest: the deployed skUSD contract has no fee logic and no function that could set one. Changing it would take a different contract holders had to move to deliberately. The rate is a model, not yield already paid. Check the formula at kerne.fi/api/apy.
One external audit is complete. Hexens started fieldwork on July 13, 2026 and published the final report on July 31, 2026: ten findings, none critical, eight fixed and two acknowledged. The live vault runs earlier bytecode than the reviewed commit, so its findings are open on chain and vault deposits are closed. A public bug bounty is at kerne.fi/security, and every report is at kerne.fi/security/audits.
Opal Fragments accrue to every kUSD holder at 100 per kUSD per hour, with a 10% referral bonus. Season 1 standings are banked; accrual runs to a date-certain snapshot on August 19, 2026 at 19:59 UTC. Fragments divide the community tranche only. No token generation event is scheduled or guaranteed, no contract converts fragments into KERNE, and if no distribution ever happens fragments convert to nothing. Full position: kerne.fi/security/kerne-token-disclosure.
A fully backed dollar you can check yourself
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