What is KIMP
KIMP turns the kimchi premium into an on-chain market on GIWA, with a signed index, weekly cash-settled contracts and a single LP pool.
KIMP is a protocol that makes the kimchi premium tradable. It publishes the premium on-chain as an index, lists weekly cash-settled contracts on that index, and runs a single liquidity pool that acts as counterparty. It is built natively on GIWA, the Ethereum L2 developed by Dunamu, the operator of Upbit.
The kimchi premium#
The kimchi premium (김치 프리미엄, "kimp" or 김프 in Korean trader slang) is the spread between the KRW price of an asset on Upbit and its global USD price. When Korean retail demand runs hot, the premium can reach around +6%. In panic it turns negative, which traders call the reverse premium (역프).
Everyone in the Korean market watches it. Until now, nobody could trade it or hedge it directly. Capital controls and exchange frictions keep the spread open, and there has been no instrument that settles on the spread itself.
What KIMP provides#
KIMP has three components. Each one has its own section in these docs.
| Component | Role | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Kimp Index | A signed, per-asset measure of the premium in basis points, finalized on-chain every 60 seconds | Kimp Index |
| Kimp Contracts | Weekly cash-settled contracts on the index, long or short premium, 1x to 5x | Kimp Contracts |
| Kimp Pool | A single LP vault that is counterparty to every contract; LPs hold kLP | Kimp Pool |
Assets at launch are BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and DOGE.
How a trade works#
- 1The Kimp Index for each asset is computed from the Upbit KRW price, a median of global USD prices and a USDKRW reference, then finalized on-chain by a bonded reporter set.
- 2A trader opens a Long premium or Short premium position on one asset's weekly contract, posting margin up front.
- 3The position is marked against the latest finalized index value.
- 4At expiry, every Friday at 08:00 UTC, open positions settle in cash against a 1-hour TWAP of the index.
A Long premium position gains when the premium rises. A Short premium position gains when it falls. P&L is linear in basis points: notional × Δbps / 10,000.
Who uses it#
- Traders who hold a view on Korean retail sentiment and want to express it without moving funds across borders.
- Arbitrage desks and holders of KRW inventory who want to hedge premium exposure. A short premium position is the natural hedge, which the site calls Kimp Guard.
- Liquidity providers who want to earn protocol fees by taking the other side of net trader flow through the Kimp Pool.
Two lanes#
The protocol is permissionless. Anyone can trade in the open lane, up to 3x leverage and 25,000 USD notional per account per asset. A parallel Verified Lane is gated by the GIWA Dojang "Verified Address" attestation and allows up to 5x and 250,000 USD. KIMP reads only a boolean from the attestation contract and never receives personal data.
The $KIMP token#
$KIMP is used for reporter bonds, fee share, buyback and burn, and governance. It has not launched. No contract address exists. Any address presented as $KIMP today is not genuine. See Tokenomics.
Where to go next#
- Why GIWA explains the choice of chain.
- Formula and worked example shows the index computation step by step.
- Worked P&L examples shows how positions pay out.
- Risks should be read before using the protocol.