DeFi hub Karura emerges as first Kusama parachain slot auction winner

Polkadot’s canary network, Kusama, is set to see decentralized finance hub Karura become the first parachain.

Karura network has emerged as the winner of the maiden Kusama parachain slot auction.

According to an announcement issued on Tuesday, Karura pulled support from over 15,000 entities who staked Kusama (KSM) tokens in favor of adding the decentralized finance hub as the first Kusama parachain.

In total, Karura locked up over 500,000 KSM currently valued at $90 million based on the Kusama market price as of the time of writing. Earlier in June, United States crypto trading platform Kraken launched a parachain auction platform for users to support bids for Karura.

The first-ever @kusamanetwork parachain slot auction has been won by @KaruraNetwork with 501,137.6619 $KSM #ExpectedKarura pic.twitter.com/VjnDZPvGKR

— Dan Reecer ️⚪️ (@danreecer_) June 22, 2021

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Kusama council approved the first parachain slot auction a week ago. The approval was based on a tentative schedule created by Polkadot and Kusama creator Gavin Wood published a fortnight ago.

Karura is the Polkadot implementation of the Acala protocol — a decentralized finance hub that aims to be the de facto DeFi ecosystem for the Polkadot chain.

Karura, along with other projects such as Moonriver, Shiden and Kilt, has been active on the Rococo testnet with significant community participation across these protocols.

With Karura winning the first parachain slot auction, the DeFi hub is now set for onboarding to the Kusama relay chain.

Related: Another first for Polkadot as Kusama council approves first parachain slot auction

Based on Wood’s schedule, four other parachain slot auctions will take place over the next four weeks. Each weekly auction will include a two-day initial bidding period and another five days to finalize the process, with a winner emerging at the end of the seven-day cycle.

After the first five slot auctions, an audit will take place to examine the performance of the network during the process before kickstarting another round spread across five more weeks.

These slot auctions will determine the first set of parachains to be added to the Kusama relay chain that serves as a sister network for Polkadot.