Kaito AI: The AI-Powered Search Engine for Crypto

• AI-driven search engine designed for cryptocurrency and Web3 research.

• Founded in 2022 by Yu Hu, former Citadel manager.

• Aggregates fragmented crypto data from social media, governance forums, news, research papers, and podcasts.

• Leverages AI and machine learning for real-time insights, smart alerts, sentiment analysis, and custom dashboards.

• Raised over $10.8 million in funding from Dragonfly Capital, Spartan, and Superscrypt.

• "Yaps" rewards program incentivizes user engagement, with speculation about a potential token launch.

• Aims to revolutionize crypto research and decision-making through AI-driven insights.

📌 Learn more: Kaito AI

The Yaps Leaderboard by Kaito AI ranks users ("Yappers") based on Yap Points earned through crypto-related content on X (Twitter). It measures Mindshare, Smart Followers, and Content Quality to highlight top contributors. Users connect their accounts to track rankings.

Why Putting Kaito AI’s Yap Scores On-Chain Matters

Kaito AI’s on-chain Yap Scores could transform crypto engagement by ensuring transparency, permission-less, and censorship resistance. With immutable records, this system eliminates manipulation, establishing a reliable measure of influence and activity.

More importantly, it's permission-less. You dont have to ask Kaito for permission to use it. ( Kudos, if you credit them though). The API currently needs permission to use.

Potential Use Cases:

• Exclusive Access – Yap Scores could be used to gate alpha and beta access, allowing only active crypto contributors to participate.

• Governance Gating – DAOs and protocols could restrict decision-making to engaged users, reducing spam and bot-driven manipulation.

• Discounted ICO Allocations and Airdrops – Projects could attract top Yappers by offering discounted or free token allocations, ensuring amplified mindshare in the social mindshare.

• Censorship Resistance – Your Yap Score is immutable, meaning not even Kaito can change it—but if Elon decides you’re a threat to free speech and nukes your X account, well... tough luck, friend.

• Permissionless Utility – Whether you're a VC, a retail trader, or an average Joe building a tool he loves, Kaito’s data remains open and accessible to all.

credits to @0xBreadguy @BCheque1 @im0xPrince @0xruslan55 whose ideas these are based on.

Kaito distributed nearly 150 ETH in mint proceeds among the top 1,000 yappers. Those ranked 0-500 received 0.2 ETH each, while yappers ranked 500-1,000 received 0.1 ETH. Check out the stats below.

Now, the question is: how can this reward program continue?

Considering that Kaito earns approximately 2.5 ETH per week from royalties, it could allocate these rewards to the top 100 yappers and the top 100 emerging yappers. This approach would strike a balance between rewarding loyal participants and encouraging new ones to engage.