Kinetic

TLDR

Kinetic is a unified Solana-native trading platform and DEX aggregator that integrates every stage of a trade — token discovery, order routing, execution, analytics, and portfolio management — into a single interface. Founded in 2022 by Grant Stenger and backed by $10 million from Sequoia, Jump Capital, Dao5, and SVAngel, the platform surpassed $100 million in trading volume before launching its first incentive season. At Solana Breakpoint 2025, Kinetic unveiled SUPA, a batch-auction AMM designed to neutralize MEV sandwich attacks. A points-based rewards program, multi-tier referral commissions, and gamified trading seasons round out the platform's approach to user acquisition and retention.

The Problem Kinetic Addresses

Solana's DEX landscape historically spread the trading workflow across multiple fragmented tools. A trader typically needed a separate discovery tool to surface new assets, a DEX aggregator to route swaps efficiently, a charting platform for technical analysis, and a portfolio tracker to review performance. Switching between these tools added friction and latency, particularly for traders targeting rapidly moving tokens during launchpad graduation windows.

A second, more structural problem was MEV extraction. Sandwich attacks — where bots front-run and back-run user swaps within the same block — extracted an estimated $370 million to $500 million from Solana traders over roughly 16 months. The underlying cause was the sequential, first-come-first-served execution model of conventional AMMs: position within a block determined execution price, giving well-resourced bots a repeatable edge over ordinary traders.

Core Mechanism: DEX Aggregation and SUPA

Kinetic's primary trading layer is a DEX aggregator with smart routing algorithms that sweep liquidity across Solana's pools and return the most efficient route with the lowest effective cost. The platform positions this routing as competitive with Jupiter, the dominant Solana aggregator, while wrapping it in a more integrated surrounding experience.

The more technically novel component is SUPA, Kinetic's on-chain AMM unveiled at Breakpoint 2025. SUPA operates as a Constant Product Market Maker with a batch-auction settlement layer: rather than processing swaps sequentially within a slot — which creates the price-position asymmetry that sandwich bots exploit — SUPA collects all orders submitted in a given slot and settles them together at a single uniform clearing price.

This design is structurally MEV-resistant. With every order in a slot clearing at the same price, there is no positional advantage; front-running and back-running strategies have nothing to exploit. For liquidity providers, batch settlement also reduces losses from arbitrage bots correcting stale AMM prices, which may improve net LP yields relative to conventional pool designs. Kinetic built SUPA as fully on-chain, plug-and-play infrastructure compatible with existing Solana routers and aggregators, so other protocols can integrate it without rebuilding swap logic from scratch.

Platform Features

Token Discovery — Kinetic Discover: The discovery layer provides a customizable live feed of Solana tokens sortable by holder count, 24-hour volume, and price change. From a single view, traders can access real-time market data, TradingView-integrated charts, wallet-level transaction flows, top holder distributions, and liquidity pool breakdowns. The goal is to consolidate the research workflow that would otherwise require separate tools like Birdeye or DEX Screener.

Trenches: A fast-execution feed targeting the launchpad graduation window. As new tokens move through graduation on Solana launchpads, users can execute buys with minimal latency, aiming to capture price discovery before broader market participants react.

Portfolio and Social Profiles: Kinetic maintains searchable public profiles displaying trading statistics, volume, accumulated points, and level progression per user. The platform has flagged plans for a social chat layer similar to a Bloomberg Terminal-style communication tool for traders.

Rewards — Levels and Kinetic Points: Every swap earns Kinetic Points. The platform redistributes a portion of trading fees back to users through a volume-based Levels system that scales rebates between 25% and 40% depending on the trader's tier. A multi-tier referral program layers on top: 30% commissions from direct referrals, and 5%, 3%, and 1% from second through fourth-degree referrals respectively.

Season 1 and Gamification: Kinetic launched its first incentive season with leaderboard competitions, arcade games integrated into the platform, streak bonuses for consecutive trading days, and prize pools funded by platform fees. The gamified structure is designed to drive trading frequency without relying solely on external token emissions.

Tokens and Assets

Kinetic supports trading across more than one million Solana tokens, covering the full breadth of the ecosystem from established SPL assets to newly graduated tokens. The platform has not confirmed a native token as of mid-2026. The Kinetic Points system is widely interpreted as a precursor to an airdrop — the volume-based accrual, referral multipliers, and streak mechanics all pattern-match to prior Solana airdrop campaigns — but no ticker, contract address, or distribution timeline has been announced officially.

Security and Audits

No third-party security audits have been publicly disclosed. SUPA was presented at Breakpoint 2025 as new infrastructure, and given its on-chain AMM role, independent audit coverage would be a critical prerequisite before significant liquidity migrates to it. Traders and liquidity providers should factor the absence of disclosed audits into their risk assessment, particularly for SUPA pool participation.

Team and Funding

Grant Stenger is the Founder and CEO of Kinetic. His background spans quantitative trading and machine learning: he was a Quantitative Trader at Jane Street, a researcher at Polychain Capital, and a Machine Learning Engineer at Numerai. He holds a BS in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Southern California.

Kinetic raised $10 million from Sequoia, Jump Capital, Dao5, SVAngel, Lux Capital, K5 Ventures, Soma Capital, Box Group, and Contrary. The combination of quantitative finance pedigree in the founding team and a deep VC syndicate including crypto-native and crossover funds gives the project access to capital and operator networks that many early-stage DEX competitors lack.

Solana Fit

Kinetic is exclusively Solana-native. Its aggregation layer routes across Solana's liquidity pools, SUPA addresses a Solana-specific MEV problem, and its Trenches feature is built around Solana launchpad graduation mechanics. The platform was showcased at Breakpoint 2025 and has positioned itself as a candidate for the routing and execution infrastructure layer that Solana's DeFi ecosystem will depend on at scale.

Kinetic's primary competitive target is Jupiter, which commands the majority of DEX aggregator volume on Solana. Kinetic differentiates by embedding the research and discovery workflow directly into the aggregator experience, and by developing proprietary AMM infrastructure — SUPA — that addresses execution quality problems Jupiter's existing architecture does not solve at the AMM level. Meaningful market share will likely depend on the eventual token launch, SUPA adoption by independent liquidity providers, and sustained product execution against an incumbent that already processes billions of dollars in monthly volume.