Posted December 08, 2025
Kintsu went live on Monad mainnet from the genesis block. With it came sMON, a fully composable Liquid Staking Token already integrated across DEXs, lending markets, structured products, and more. In just a few days, sMON is positioning itself as one of the foundational assets powering Monad’s emerging DeFi economy.
The Kintsu Points Program is now live. It’s the mechanism that determines how KSU, the token responsible for decentralised validator curation, begins its distribution.
This article explains the opportunity and how you can maximise your ability to earn Points. More importantly, it outlines how governance power transitions to the people who stake, use sMON, and help build its footprint across Monad.
KSU will govern validator inclusion and delegation weights. This decision sits at the heart of every liquid staking protocol. It determines whether the validator set becomes decentralised or quietly captured over time.
Most early LSTs relied on static whitelists, centrally managed validator sets, or rigid algorithms. These approaches concentrate power and cap how much stake any LST can absorb without risking network centralisation.
Kintsu takes a different route: KSU hands validator curation to the stakeholders.
Validators will compete for delegation based on performance and MEV strategy. Strong performance, and better alignment earns more stake. Weak performance loses it. Over time, KSU turns validator selection into a transparent, merit-based marketplace aligned with the people who rely on the network.
The opportunity is clear: Early activity today becomes an early influence in a system that will eventually govern the flow of massive amounts of stake across Monad.
Kintsu Points decide who receives early access to KSU
The users who drive sMON adoption are the ones who will shape validator curation
Each day, a fixed amount of points is released. Points are distributed proportionally based on productive activity, such as TVL across approved integrations. The model updates continuously as liquidity moves, automatically optimizing towards where value is being created within the Kintsu liquidity network.
Beyond sMON deposits, the Points Program also rewards MON deposits and, in some integrations, stablecoins that sit adjacent to sMON. These assets play a critical role in bootstrapping Kintsu’s liquidity network, especially in lending markets and, soon, DEX pools. The goal is simple: incentivise the types of deposits that strengthen sMON’s utility and expand the network of liquidity around it.
If a protocol attracts more sMON and adjacent deposits, its users earn a larger share of the daily allocation. If liquidity shifts, the weighting shifts too.
As more integrations launch, the earning surface expands. Early adopters naturally gain more exposure as the ecosystem grows, which is why starting early matters.
Give & Get. Kintsu’s referral system is one of the easiest ways to increase your share of Points. Refer someone new, and both of you earn a 10% points bonus on the referred user’s first 30 days. It’s a multiplier you control, and for early users, it’s a chance to lock in extra upside before the ecosystem gets crowded. Bring people in now and grow your exposure as sMON expands across Monad.
For example:
you refer someone who earns 100,000 points within their first 30 days
then you earn 10,000 points as a bonus
they earn 10,000 points as a bonus
The power of referring gives you an opportunity to earn more than what you can be earning from your original stake.
A subset of NFTs across selected Monad projects includes Kintsu traits. Holding one of these NFTs gives you a 1.25× multiplier on the Points you earn.
The multiplier is per user, not per NFT. Whether you hold one or ten, your multiplier stays the same.
This keeps the system fair, avoids “pay-to-win” meta gaming, and introduces real utility for NFT communities while keeping incentives aligned.
Current partners offering Kintsu trait NFTs include:
Kintsu will also introduce Booster NFTs, each offering a 1.5× Points multiplier inside the Points Program while remaining non-stackable for fairness. These NFTs are designed to recognise early contributors and active ecosystem participants, the people helping sMON scale from day one.
Distribution will be prioritised to:
Kintsu OGs and Ambassadors
Partner giveaways
Community giveaways
More details on Booster NFTs are coming soon.
In proof-of-stake networks, delegation is power. If validator selection is centralised, the network is centralised, regardless of how strong the underlying technology is.
Kintsu addresses this directly. With governance, validators will compete in the open for delegation. KSU holders decide inclusion and weighting based on performance, MEV behaviour, and alignment with the network. This turns validator selection into a living marketplace, driven by merit, not gatekeeping.
The result is a healthier, more decentralised validator set where users, validators, and protocols all share aligned incentives from day one.
Kintsu Points are the entry point into this system. They give users a path to KSU, and with it, meaningful influence over how Monad’s validator set evolves. The earlier users participate, the more of the ecosystem they capture as new sMON integrations launch and liquidity expands.
As Monad grows, one thing stays constant: the users who help build sMON into Monad’s economic foundation will be the ones who shape its future.
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