Development Update | Trading Competition Wrap-Up

The Kyan Trading Competition has officially come to a close. Over the course of two stages, thousands of traders put Kyan through its paces, stress-testing the engine, exploring portfolio margin in real conditions, and helping us shape what’s coming next.

Let’s take a look at what’s changed here at Kyan and where we’re heading from here.

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up for updates on upcoming Kyan events.

From day one, the goal of the Kyan Trading Competition was clear: simulate real trading behavior before mainnet launch. We wanted to see how portfolio margin behaves under pressure, how users interact with options, perps, and combo trades, and how the system holds up when activity spikes.

Stage 1 laid the foundation. Stage 2 took things to another level.

In Stage 2 alone, we welcomed over 3,300 new participants, on top of roughly 3,000 traders from Stage 1 returning to climb the leaderboard again. Everyone started fresh, portfolios were reset, and traders went head-to-head from the same starting line.

The volume and activity we saw during Stage 2 exceeded expectations and gave us invaluable data:

These stats represent real usage across products, strategies, and risk profiles. Traders pushed Kyan’s limits, exactly like we hoped they would.

Throughout the event, the team stayed hands-on. From Stage 1, users asked a lot of questions, which helped us identify areas to improve upon. In Stage 2, we shipped several meaningful improvements:

This kind of live feedback loop is exactly why we run testnet competitions and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who reported issues, shared suggestions, and stuck with us through the rough edges.

Beyond trading volume and leaderboard battles, the competition was also about recognizing participation and contribution. Across both stages, rewards were designed to acknowledge top performance, consistent engagement, and exploration of the platform.

Throughout the competition, Krystals were distributed as Kyan’s point system for early users, rewarding traders for activity, experimentation, and helping stress-test the protocol. Krystals reflect the role the community played in shaping Kyan during its public testnet phase and will continue to be an important part of how we recognize early contributors going forward.

Read more about Krystals and their purpose here.

In Stage 2, we revealed our USDC prize pool for top 25 leaderboard placements.

The Kyan VIP Program is designed to recognize and reward ten most active and impactful members of the Kyan community: five in Stage 1 and five in Stage 2. VIPs receive exclusive benefits, such as zero trading fees for a period following mainnet launch and direct access to the Kyan team through dedicated communication channels.

We partnered with Layer3 to launch quests that guided users through key parts of the Kyan experience. The tasks encouraged participants to trade options and perps, build combo strategies, and explore the Premia Academy, turning learning and experimentation into something tangible and rewarding.

We’re currently finalizing the Stage 2 leaderboard and carefully reviewing the results before making them public. Given the scale of participation and the importance of fair outcomes, we’re taking extra steps to verify that the competition played out as intended and that no systems were exploited along the way.

This additional review means the process is taking a bit longer than usual, but it’s a deliberate choice. Our goal is to ensure that rewards are distributed accurately and that every participant is evaluated on a level playing field. We appreciate everyone’s patience while we complete these checks.

Final reward distributions, including Krystals and other competition incentives, are being processed alongside the final leaderboard and will be shared soon. Thank you to everyone who completed quests, stayed active across both stages, and helped make the competition a success.

One of the biggest takeaways from the competition was was community-driven. We received thoughtful feedback on everything from UX flows and risk metrics to order behavior and portfolio visibility. That feedback is already informing the improvements we’re working on before mainnet launch.

To everyone who traded, tested, reported bugs, or simply explored the platform: thank you. You helped make Kyan better.

Kyan is currently in scheduled downtime as we finalize data, prepare the final leaderboard, and wrap up competition-related processes. After that, Kyan will come back online for continued testing and exploration. You’ll still be able to use the platform, try out strategies, and get familiar with the system (just note that live support will be paused during this period).

And beyond testnet? Early 2026, Kyan goes to mainnet.

The trading competition was a major milestone on that path. What comes next is refinement, polish, and preparation for launch, built on everything we learned together over the past weeks.

This is only the beginning.

Make sure you’re first in line for Kyan’s events and updates by signing up here.

​Kyan will be a significant upgrade for anyone trading decentralized derivatives.

If you have any questions, hop into our Discord or shoot us a message on X. We would love to know your thoughts!

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