Kinetiq wraps kPoints program as KNTQ slides more than 20%

Kinetiq has closed the book on its kPoints rewards program. Points holders now get first dibs on 50 million KNTQ tokens at a fixed price of $0.26 each.

The timing is awkward. KNTQ hit an all-time high of approximately $0.448 on October 1, 2026, and has since given back more than 20% of that peak, trading close to $0.33.

How the kPoints conversion works

Kinetiq is a liquid staking protocol built on Hyperliquid. Over 46 weeks, it handed out a total of 36.8 million kPoints, with later phases distributing 800,000 points per week.

Instead of a free distribution, participants can claim the right to buy KNTQ at $0.26 per token. The claim window runs for 10 days and opened on October 1, 2026.

The allocation totals 50 million KNTQ. That equals 5% of the token’s maximum supply of 1 billion, and the sale could potentially bring in $13 million in gross proceeds if fully claimed.

There is no lockup and no vesting. Tokens bought through the claim are usable immediately.

Anything left unclaimed when the window shuts goes back to the Kinetiq Foundation. The foundation plans to put those tokens toward ecosystem development.

A discount that shrinks as the price falls

When Kinetiq published its blog announcement, KNTQ was trading around $0.40. Against that level, a $0.26 entry price looked like a meaningful discount for points holders.

That gap has narrowed. With KNTQ near $0.33, the claim price still sits below market, but the cushion is thinner than it was at the time of the announcement.

KNTQ’s circulating supply ranges between 280 million and 335 million tokens, so 50 million unlocked tokens is a large block relative to what currently trades.

Buybacks and the Hyperliquid playbook

The conversion arrives alongside other changes to KNTQ’s economics. The most notable is KIP-5, a governance proposal that directs revenue-funded KNTQ buybacks to the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund, with the goal of permanently reducing KNTQ supply.

Kinetiq has run buybacks before. Earlier revenue-funded purchases scooped up more than 5.39 million KNTQ at an average price of $0.15.

The design echoes Hyperliquid itself, whose Assistance Fund buys back HYPE using exchange revenue. Kinetiq is borrowing that model and applying it to its own token.

Kinetiq’s core product lets users stake HYPE and receive kHYPE, a liquid token they can keep using elsewhere in DeFi while their stake earns rewards. The protocol has since added perpetual futures trading through Markets.xyz, along with tools for launching new projects.

What this means for KNTQ holders and points farmers

For points holders, the claim only makes sense as long as KNTQ trades above $0.26, and the 10-day window caps how long anyone can wait to decide.

For existing KNTQ holders, the key variable is how much of the 50 million tokens actually gets claimed and sold. A heavy claim followed by quick selling could add pressure, while low participation sends more tokens back to the foundation instead of the open market.

The paid-claim structure filters for users willing to commit capital and turns the distribution into a funding event for the project. The tradeoff is that some farmers who spent 46 weeks accumulating points may have expected a free allocation.

If protocol revenue holds up, buybacks routed to the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund work against the new supply over time. Investors will want to track claim participation, on-chain selling from claim wallets, and the size of upcoming buybacks before drawing conclusions about where KNTQ settles.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.