KII opened for spot trading on Bybit, KuCoin and Kraken on August 14. On August 22 an attacker exploited a bug in the shared Cosmos EVM module and drained 148.3 million KII. KiiChain halted the chain that night and restarted it on August 28. KII traded at $0.08746 on October 7.
Where it stands
Bybit opened KII/USDT at 13:00 UTC on August 14, BitcoinWorld reported, and Bybit's market data shows the first hourly candle at that time. KuCoin's announcement set a call auction from 12:00 to 13:00 UTC, trading from 13:00 UTC and withdrawals on August 15. Kraken's notice the same day said trading was live. Its KII/USD pair was online on October 7, and Bybit's spot pair was still trading.
Perpetual futures followed in late September. The exchanges' own contract data shows OKX and Gate listing KII-USDT perpetuals on September 24, with leverage up to 10x and 20x, and Bybit launching its perpetual on September 28 at up to 5x.
CoinGecko showed KII at $0.08746 on October 7, with a market cap of $30.77 million and 351.79 million of 1.8 billion tokens circulating. Daily volume was $6.47 million, led by MEXC, Bitget and KuCoin. The all-time high of $0.09774 came on listing day. The all-time low of $0.01004 came on August 22, the day of the exploit.
The August 22 exploit
KiiChain is an on-chain foreign exchange layer, not another general layer 1. Its public sale on Sonar drew 9,450 registrations and opened on August 3 with a $10 minimum ticket, and sale tokens carry a one year cliff followed by two years of daily vesting, Chainwire reported. Trading started three days after the sale closed.
On Sonar, KYC-gated, $10 minimum.
Bybit and KuCoin at 13:00 UTC, Kraken same day.
148.3M KII drained in 18 rounds; chain halted at 22:50 UTC.
Block production resumes after a fix.
OKX and Gate on Sep 24, Bybit on Sep 28.
The attacker began draining wallets at 20:32 UTC, Rekt News reported, repeating one technique 18 times. The halt at block 9,355,723 at 22:50:58 UTC stopped further theft. The total was 148,326,583.15 KII, about $9.7 million at the pre-exploit price. One outlet dated the incident August 23, but the halt time and Rekt's timeline place it on August 22 UTC.
The bug sat in the Cosmos EVM module, not in code KiiChain wrote. Rekt describes an underflow in the staking precompile combined with vesting-account and balance-accounting flaws. Cosmos Labs told affected chains to halt validators, and TAC and MANTRA were also hit, crypto.news reported on August 25.
Recovery was partial. About 80.7 million KII, 54.4 percent, stayed on KiiChain and froze when the chain stopped. The other 67,597,997.87 KII, 45.6 percent, crossed Hyperlane to BNB Smart Chain, and about 64.6 million of it was sold on PancakeSwap, Coin Gabbar reported. KiiChain resumed block production on August 28 and said no user funds were lost, as Rekt quoted it, while noting that nearly half the drained tokens had already left the chain. Bitget reopened KII deposits on BNB Smart Chain on September 1.
Risks and what to watch
An earlier version of this page described the August 22 low as a float effect. The exploit explains it. The token has since recovered most of the loss, which says little about whether the repaired module is safe.
Sale tokens remain locked, so the circulating supply still comes from other allocations. Thin floats and security incidents both produce violent candles, which the exchange listings guide covers, and the CYS listing shows another case. We also cover the debut in a dedicated news piece. None of this tests whether on-chain FX for emerging markets is a real business.
- Incident report: Cosmos Labs had promised one by August 25.
- Recovered funds: how the 80.7 million KII is handled.
- New venues: none beyond Bybit, Kraken and KuCoin was found.
Not financial advice Listings often spike and then fade once the first wave of buyers is done. Nothing here is a suggestion to buy this token. Check dates on the exchange's own announcement page before trading: schedules slip. Our listing reaction data shows how new listings have typically traded.
