Kujira fumbled after using their treasury in yield products. They took a massive hit on the price and people thought their days were over until JPThor (founder of THORChain) stepped in.

So what is happening now?

Kujira has announced a partnership with THORChain. This collaboration will integrate THORChain's native cross-chain swap capabilities into Kujira’s DeFi suite, leveraging THORChain's deep liquidity and enabling access to native assets like $BTC and $ETH. This move is set to enhance Kujira's growth by tapping into THORChain’s established ecosystem, which has seen substantial activity recently, with hundreds of millions in TVL and billions in trading volume.

The partnership also brings an underwritten token raise, aimed at clearing a deficit on Kujira’s balance sheet due to past risk management issues. This raise, supported by THORChain’s founder with a $3 million backstop, will ensure affected vault depositors can withdraw their funds post-sale. The sale will be conducted through two auctions to repay debts in $USDC and $USK.

In addition to financial restructuring, they introduce key operational changes. Kujira's leadership will see a shift with the departure of Dove, who has been instrumental in the project's success. In their place, trusted community members, Amit and PragmaticMonkey, will join the core team, with PragmaticMonkey taking charge of treasury management and dApp operations. These changes are part of a broader commitment to enhance transparency and accountability in Kujira’s operations.

This partnership is strategic between Kujira and THORChain, with both teams focused on delivering world-class DeFi products and creating value for users. The community will have the opportunity to ratify the details of this partnership through an upcoming vote, after which the token raise will go live. The Kujira team are optimistic about the future, highlighting the shared vision and synergy between the two ecosystems.

Note: both Kujira and THORChain are Cosmos / Tendermint protocols.

Read more: https://winkhub.app/posts/kujira-recovery-plan-thorchain-partnership

I stayed away from $KUJI because I always saw it as similar to Terra - very much a looped liquidity system. You buy KUJI, stake it, mint stablecoins, buy more KUJI, and so on. I doubt this will change much, but I believe they will get a boost in liquidity through Thorchain.

Deffo worth putting on your radar.

Kujira

Kujira fumbled after using their treasury in yield products. They took a massive hit on the price and people thought their days were over until JPThor (founder of THORChain) stepped in.

So what is happening now?

Kujira has announced a partnership with THORChain. This collaboration will integrate THORChain's native cross-chain swap capabilities into Kujira’s DeFi suite, leveraging THORChain's deep liquidity and enabling access to native assets like $BTC and $ETH. This move is set to enhance Kujira's growth by tapping into THORChain’s established ecosystem, which has seen substantial activity recently, with hundreds of millions in TVL and billions in trading volume.

The partnership also brings an underwritten token raise, aimed at clearing a deficit on Kujira’s balance sheet due to past risk management issues. This raise, supported by THORChain’s founder with a $3 million backstop, will ensure affected vault depositors can withdraw their funds post-sale. The sale will be conducted through two auctions to repay debts in $USDC and $USK.

In addition to financial restructuring, they introduce key operational changes. Kujira's leadership will see a shift with the departure of Dove, who has been instrumental in the project's success. In their place, trusted community members, Amit and PragmaticMonkey, will join the core team, with PragmaticMonkey taking charge of treasury management and dApp operations. These changes are part of a broader commitment to enhance transparency and accountability in Kujira’s operations.

This partnership is strategic between Kujira and THORChain, with both teams focused on delivering world-class DeFi products and creating value for users. The community will have the opportunity to ratify the details of this partnership through an upcoming vote, after which the token raise will go live. The Kujira team are optimistic about the future, highlighting the shared vision and synergy between the two ecosystems.

Note: both Kujira and THORChain are Cosmos / Tendermint protocols.

Read more: https://winkhub.app/posts/kujira-recovery-plan-thorchain-partnership

I stayed away from $KUJI because I always saw it as similar to Terra - very much a looped liquidity system. You buy KUJI, stake it, mint stablecoins, buy more KUJI, and so on. I doubt this will change much, but I believe they will get a boost in liquidity through Thorchain. 

Deffo worth putting on your radar.

Cyralyst

1_GsSn9IOzScwL0PQy-APixg.webp

Found this great read about $KUJI

Here is a summary:

Kujira's story in DeFi is one of resilience, ambition, and hard lessons learned. Once a star of the Terra ecosystem, they narrowly survived the Terra collapse of 2022, launching their own Cosmos-based L1. The team’s ingenuity brought powerful DeFi tools to life, like Orca, Fin, and Ghost. But this year, they faced a self-inflicted setback when leveraging treasury assets went wrong, leading to a near 95% crash in $KUJI price.

Enter THORChain, seeing Kujira's potential and stepping in to turn things around. Now, with the $RUJI merge on the horizon, Kujira is set for a comeback.

This merger brings together THORChain’s incredible liquidity and Kujira’s fully-developed DeFi app layer, creating a force to be reckoned with in DeFi.

The stage is set for a DeFi revival, and there may never be a better time to get involved.

Full read:
https://medium.com/@eldorado.market/the-epic-of-kujira-from-terras-ashes-to-thorchain-s-embrace-5f614c9a90a2

Found this great read about $KUJI 

Here is a summary:

Kujira's story in DeFi is one of resilience, ambition, and hard lessons learned. Once a star of the Terra ecosystem, they narrowly survived the Terra collapse of 2022, launching their own Cosmos-based L1. The team’s ingenuity brought powerful DeFi tools to life, like Orca, Fin, and Ghost. But this year, they faced a self-inflicted setback when leveraging treasury assets went wrong, leading to a near 95% crash in $KUJI price.

Enter THORChain, seeing Kujira's potential and stepping in to turn things around. Now, with the $RUJI merge on the horizon, Kujira is set for a comeback. 

This merger brings together THORChain’s incredible liquidity and Kujira’s fully-developed DeFi app layer, creating a force to be reckoned with in DeFi. 

The stage is set for a DeFi revival, and there may never be a better time to get involved.

Full read:
https://medium.com/@eldorado.market/the-epic-of-kujira-from-terras-ashes-to-thorchain-s-embrace-5f614c9a90a2

Kujira's Rise, Fall, and Redemption: A DeFi Epic

THORChain / Kujira Merger - $RUJI Progress and Thoughts
I’m still trying to wrap my head around this merger between THORChain and Kujira—it’s the first time I’ve followed two crypto projects coming together so closely. And, I've been a holder of $KUJI since they launched their Cosmos-chain after the Terra collapse, as well as a holder of $RUNE since the last cycle.

My closing thoughts can be found after the short intro to what is going on with the Merger. In short:

Why not 0 stars? Because it saves Kujira from dying.
Why not 5 stars? Because I don't know if it's good.

For background on why this is happening, check out my previous post: https://cyrator.com/post/kujira-kuji-progress-review-by-cyralyst-66b583f4744a94396f7e82a6?ref=63a95e41d35a79c96db8553c

RUJIRA will serve as an applayer ontop of THORChain.

Thorchain and Kujira are merging to form RUJIRA, a new layer that combines Thorchain’s bridging power with Kujira’s dApp infrastructure. Thorchain is great for cross-chain swaps, especially with native Bitcoin, but developers can't build apps on it. Kujira, on the other hand, allows full dApp deployment and offers tools like FIN and ORCA.

RUJIRA will bring a range of DeFi services—order books, lending, money markets, and more—to the THORChain network. It will operate using the IBC-CosmWasm framework, with 50% of fees shared with the THORChain base layer. Kujira’s core apps will be relaunched exclusively under RUJIRA, becoming the go-to for DeFi services on THORChain.

The migration will happen within six months after the PILOT sale, at which point Kujira’s original layer 1 will downscale to only handle token issuance.
Why I am not entirely sold on this idea?

What makes this merger interesting (and a bit risky) is that while THORChain doesn't have much to lose, Kujira is taking a huge gamble. But, given that Kujira was on the verge of dying, this might have been their best, if not the only option, to secure a future.

From THORChain’s perspective, this move makes sense—they want to expand their use cases. Instead of building something from scratch, they’re essentially acquiring Kujira, which is a cheaper option for JPThor considering the money he put in ($3m).

The technical details of RUJIRA are still unclear, which raises concerns about how smoothly the migration and integration will go. There’s also a risk of fragmentation between the THORChain and Kujira ecosystems, especially when it comes to governance, security, and user adoption. And, what will existing applications feel? Do they have enough bandwidth, and resources to relaunch their applications? Will their users follow?

There are also things like fragmented usage of the tokens. Why would they not just merge this? It would make the most sense from a UI/UX perspective.

Whilst some of the community members are excited about this idea, there are plenty who are confused / uncertain about the future (me included). Therefore, I give this progress review a 3-star rating.

**THORChain / Kujira Merger - $RUJI Progress and Thoughts**
__________________

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this merger between THORChain and Kujira—it’s the first time I’ve followed two crypto projects coming together so closely. And, I've been a holder of $KUJI since they launched their Cosmos-chain after the Terra collapse, as well as a holder of $RUNE since the last cycle. 

My closing thoughts can be found after the short intro to what is going on with the Merger. In short: 

Why not 0 stars? Because it saves Kujira from dying.
Why not 5 stars? Because I don't know if it's good. 

For background on why this is happening, check out my previous post: https://cyrator.com/post/kujira-kuji-progress-review-by-cyralyst-66b583f4744a94396f7e82a6?ref=63a95e41d35a79c96db8553c

________________

RUJIRA will serve as an applayer ontop of THORChain.

Thorchain and Kujira are merging to form RUJIRA, a new layer that combines Thorchain’s bridging power with Kujira’s dApp infrastructure. Thorchain is great for cross-chain swaps, especially with native Bitcoin, but developers can't build apps on it. Kujira, on the other hand, allows full dApp deployment and offers tools like FIN and ORCA.

RUJIRA will bring a range of DeFi services—order books, lending, money markets, and more—to the THORChain network. It will operate using the IBC-CosmWasm framework, with 50% of fees shared with the THORChain base layer. Kujira’s core apps will be relaunched exclusively under RUJIRA, becoming the go-to for DeFi services on THORChain.

The migration will happen within six months after the PILOT sale, at which point Kujira’s original layer 1 will downscale to only handle token issuance.
__________________

Why I am not entirely sold on this idea?

What makes this merger interesting (and a bit risky) is that while THORChain doesn't have much to lose, Kujira is taking a huge gamble. But, given that Kujira was on the verge of dying, this might have been their best, if not the only option, to secure a future.

From THORChain’s perspective, this move makes sense—they want to expand their use cases. Instead of building something from scratch, they’re essentially acquiring Kujira, which is a cheaper option for JPThor considering the money he put in ($3m).

The technical details of RUJIRA are still unclear, which raises concerns about how smoothly the migration and integration will go. There’s also a risk of fragmentation between the THORChain and Kujira ecosystems, especially when it comes to governance, security, and user adoption. And, what will existing applications feel? Do they have enough bandwidth, and resources to relaunch their applications? Will their users follow?

There are also things like fragmented usage of the tokens. Why would they not just merge this? It would make the most sense from a UI/UX perspective.

Whilst some of the community members are excited about this idea, there are plenty who are confused / uncertain about the future (me included). Therefore, I give this progress review a 3-star rating.

The Crypto Twitter and YouTube Shiller communities are big on this one, and seeing how KUJI is +830% YTD (As of Dec 1) and +480% in just the last two months, that hype is reaching fever pitch.

I initially dismissed Kujira based on surface-level assumptions about its outrageous yield APRs, as well as having originally built on LUNA. While that association didn’t help its reputation, being Cosmos-adjacent proved to be useful as they were able to pivot quickly to launching their own L1 blockchain with a relaunched native KUJIRA token and a new (non-algorthmic, thank Satoshi) stablecoin, USK.

The staking yields and stablecoin minting and lending system are far too complex to explain in one sentence, so I refer the reader to watch this interview for a deep dive.

Did I ape in after $3? Why, yes I did. Is KUJI overhyped? Maybe. But the sheer amount of USDC that has been locked in since October, plus the fact that KUJI still isn't available in most CEX and some DEX listings, tells me this one has legs. The only question is how far will it run.

Plus, look at this insane basket of tokens that get farmed by staking KUJI!

The Crypto Twitter and YouTube Shiller communities are big on this one, and seeing how KUJI is +830% YTD (As of Dec 1) and +480% in just the last two months, that hype is reaching fever pitch. 

I initially dismissed **Kujira** based on surface-level assumptions about its outrageous yield APRs, as well as having originally built on [LUNA](https://cyrator.com/project/terra-luna). While that association didn’t help its reputation, being [Cosmos](https://cyrator.com/project/cosmos-atom)-adjacent proved to be useful as they were able to pivot quickly to launching their own L1 blockchain with a relaunched native KUJIRA token and a new (non-algorthmic, thank Satoshi) stablecoin, *USK*.

The staking yields and stablecoin minting and lending system are far too complex to explain in one sentence, so I refer the reader to watch [this interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=XzY39vMeg8s) for a deep dive.

Did I ape in after $3? Why, yes I did. Is KUJI overhyped? Maybe. But the sheer amount of USDC that has been locked in since October, plus the fact that KUJI still isn't available in most CEX and some DEX listings, tells me this one has legs. The only question is how far will it run.

Plus, look at this insane basket of tokens that get farmed by staking KUJI!

Kujira

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