KRON is a decentralized exchange and token launchpad built directly on Kaspa's layer 1 — not an EVM layer 2 like Kasplex or Igra. New tokens launch on a bonding curve (an automatic, algorithmic price curve with no presale and no team allocation to dump), and once a token hits a market cap threshold it "graduates" into a permanently-locked liquidity pool that trades against KAS. The platform describes itself as non-custodial: KRON never takes custody of user funds, the contract logic does.
The model KRON runs isn't unique to Kaspa — the same pattern (popularized by launchpads like pump.fun on Solana) has spread to most chains that support programmable tokens. It's worth understanding once, because the mechanics explain both why it's harder to rug than a typical presale, and why most tokens launched this way still go to zero.
Anyone can create a token with no coding and no fundraise. The token's price isn't set by a team — it's set by a formula: the more people buy, the higher the price climbs along a predefined curve, and the more people sell, the more it falls back down. There's no presale allocation to unlock and dump, because there was never a presale.
Once enough buying pushes the token's market cap past a threshold, it "graduates" — the accumulated KAS backing it gets deposited into an automated market maker pool, and that liquidity is permanently locked. This is the specific claim worth understanding: locked liquidity means the token's trading pool can't be pulled out from under holders later, which is the single most common way small-cap launches turn into an outright rug. It does not mean the token's price can't fall to near zero through ordinary selling — it only removes one specific failure mode, not all of them.
Kaspa now has three distinct ways to hold a token, and they are not interchangeable:
| KRC-20 | Kasplex / Igra (L2) | KRON launches | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | inscriptions on L1 | EVM layer 2 | native L1 |
| How it's created | mint/deploy inscription | Solidity contract | bonding curve, no presale |
| Initial liquidity | none built in | set up by deployer | algorithmic, then locked at graduation |
| Programmability | none — metadata only | full EVM | covenant-based on L1 |
| Maturity | since 2024 | since 2025–2026 | since 2026 |
KRC-20 tokens are the older standard — inscriptions that carry metadata but no executable logic. Kasplex and Igra tokens are standard EVM assets, identical in kind to any Ethereum token, just settling to Kaspa. KRON's launches are the newest category: tokens whose supply, curve and locked liquidity are enforced by layer-1 logic itself, with no separate side chain involved.
Every token launched this way produces the same seductive chart shape — flat, then a spike. The chart tells you what happened. It does not tell you who owns it. That's the number worth checking before anything else: