Kusama

KSM is the coin of Kusama, a fast-moving sister network of Polkadot used to stake, vote and test new technology.

Kusama is a public blockchain network built on the same technology as Polkadot. It began in 2019 as a "canary network": new Polkadot code runs there first, with real money at stake, so problems show up before they reach Polkadot. It was started by Parity Technologies, the company led by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, and it switched to Proof of Stake on 28 October 2019.

KSM is the network coin. Holders pay transaction fees with it, stake it to secure the network, vote with it in on-chain governance and use it to rent coretime, the computing time that connected blockchains need. People who took part in the original Polkadot sale could claim KSM.

KSM has no supply cap. Official documentation says inflation is set at 10% a year (Subscan showed 9.41% on 7 October 2026), shared between stakers and a treasury that KSM holders control by vote. Holders have rejected several proposals to cap supply or cut inflation, most recently in January 2026. Total supply was about 18.95 million KSM on 7 October 2026, and about 44% of it was staked.

In March 2025 holders voted to move Kusama beyond its canary role and make it a home for experiments, with a focus on zero-knowledge cryptography, and asked the Web3 Foundation for 10 million DOT to fund builders. In October 2025 balances, staking and governance moved to Kusama Asset Hub, which also runs Ethereum-style smart contracts. In June 2026 the validator set was cut from 1,000 to 700, and the community is still debating how the network should be secured in the long run.