The recent launch of KERNEL on Binance triggered a sharp sell-off, largely driven by users offloading their airdropped tokens. The price tumbled nearly 44%, reaching a low of $0.262, which brought its market capitalization down to approximately $48.6 million.
Despite the drop, the token saw intense market activity, recording close to $380 million in 24-hour trading volume. Around 149.8 million KERNEL tokens were reported to be in active circulation during this time.
Trading for KERNEL began on April 14, with the token being paired against major currencies like USDT and BNB. Beyond spot trading, Binance also rolled out KERNEL across several of its features such as Simple Earn, Buy Crypto, Convert, Margin, and Futures, with leverage reaching up to 75x.
This listing came shortly after Binance introduced KERNEL as the fourth project on its Megadrop platform, which ran from April 9 to April 13. Participants who locked BNB in Simple Earn and completed specific Web3 tasks were rewarded with a share of 40 million KERNEL tokens, representing 4% of the total 1 billion token supply.
According to KERNEL’s token distribution plan, 55% is reserved for community rewards and airdrops, while 5% supports ecosystem partnerships and growth. Another 20% is allocated to private sales and team members, with those tokens locked for six months, followed by a 24-month vesting schedule.
At the time of launch, 162.3 million tokens or 16.23% of the total supply were released into circulation. Interestingly, KernelDAO had originally scheduled the token’s launch for February 2025, but later moved the date forward to April 14.
The Token Generation Event (TGE) was strategically coordinated across several major platforms, including Coinbase, Kraken, KuCoin, MEXC, Gate.io, CoinEx, and Bitvavo, all of which enabled trading at the same time as Binance.
It’s common for new tokens to see early price drops after airdrops. For example, the Tutorial (TUT) token initially surged 235% after its Binance debut on March 28, only to lose more than half its value shortly after, as airdrop participants sold their holdings.
What is KernelDAO?
Launched in 2023, KernelDAO is a restaking protocol with over $2 billion in total value locked, supporting more than 10 blockchains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
Its main offerings include Kernel, a restaking infrastructure built on BNB Chain; Kelp LRT, a leading liquid restaking platform on Ethereum; and Gain, a tokenized rewards program designed to help users earn high-yield rewards and airdrops.
The KERNEL token serves as both a governance and utility token. Holders can restake it to help secure the network and gain access to additional airdrop opportunities. KernelDAO also allocates a portion of its protocol revenue to buy back KERNEL tokens.
Since its inception, KernelDAO has raised significant funding, including a $10 million private sale in 2024 led by Binance Labs (now YZi Labs), SCB Limited, and Laser Digital. Additionally, the project has launched a $40 million ecosystem fund aimed at growing and enhancing the restaking infrastructure on the BNB Chain.
