Over the past year, the Kaspa ecosystem has experienced a remarkable surge of innovation, and they’re evolving at the speed of, well...Kaspa. Among the standout projects leading this charge is KaspaCom (Kaspa.com). As a multi-functional hub, it has rapidly grown into one of the ecosystem’s most comprehensive platforms.

We last caught up with the KaspaCom team in December 2024 in an interview titled Introducing KaspaCom: An Interview with the Team. Since then, the project has grown to a team of about twenty-two and has surpassed $27 million in cumulative trading volume, with over 11,000 unique wallets connected.

The app functions as a decentralized exchange (DEX), a marketplace for KRC-20 tokens, KRC-721 NFTs, and .kas domains, and features a robust portfolio dashboard with real-time analytics and DEX screening tools. They now offer roughly 200 NFT collections, along with roughly 1,975 KRC-20 tokens, available to exchange on their marketplace. Additionally, users can launch their own KRC20 tokens through the launchpad.

The platform has even launched its own 100% fair-launch NFT collection, Yonatashi, featuring 10,000 quirky “Imposters.” The mint is still open, with Imposters starting at just 125 KAS (around $13). Head to KaspaCom to mint your own!

Across X, community sentiment is overwhelmingly positive. User @NakaSompo wrote, 

“@KaspaCom deserves so much credit. Love this website. Easy as hell to use, packed with features - just a great experience. So grateful for y’all!”. Another user, @JackEllis2345, posted: “It is definitely the best all in one DeFi platform in the Kaspa ecosystem and will only get better with Smart Contracts.”

Looking ahead, the KaspaCom team is working on several firsts for the network, including a Kaspa-native lending protocol and a new oracle solution.

In this new interview, we spoke with Sione Milhem, Founder and CEO of KaspaCom, to discuss the platform’s transformation—from its origins as a simple DEX to its vision as a full-spectrum hub for DeFi, education, and media within the Kaspa ecosystem.

Getting to Know Sione and the Team

Jennifer: How did you first discover Kaspa, and when did you realize it was something you wanted to dedicate your life to?

Sione: I started building and learning on Ethereum during the last bull run. I got hooked on trading NFTs and meme coins, and after seeing the opportunity in the space, I decided to stick around. I dove deep into Ethereum — listened to hours of podcasts, learned the tech, and was super bullish on it.

Then came the Merge. When Ethereum switched to Proof of Stake in late 2022, it left me with mixed feelings. Around that time, in Q4 of 2022, my brother Abraham (who’s now also a business developer at Kaspa.com) invited me to a crypto networking event. I didn’t really want to go — but he lured me in by saying there’d be free sushi.

At the party, we tried mingling and networking. We ended up talking to a few smart-looking (kind of nerdy) guys who turned out to be brilliant — they had built their own trading bot and were already financially independent. During one of the conversations, one of them casually mentioned Kaspa — just in passing. It stuck in the back of my mind.

Later, I started watching Kaspa’s price, joined the Discord, and slowly became more curious. I made my first buy at around $0.005 — with what little I had left as a student.

At the same time, I was moving away from Ethereum and exploring the Solana ecosystem. I also went down the rabbit hole of “what is money” and Bitcoin fundamentals. After 100+ hours of listening to Michael Saylor and others, I became a full-on Bitcoin maxi. That shift helped me understand Kaspa on a deeper level — its innovative technology, its vision, and how truly disruptive it is.

I completely fell in love with the industry — and with Kaspa.

I was working as a full-stack developer at the time, and when Kasplex launched, I started exploring what I could build and with whom. I spoke with a few community members, including Kaspador, but nothing really clicked. Eventually, I just said: “Screw it. I’m building my own team and doing it my way.”

And that’s how it all started. I had been dreaming for years about working in the crypto industry — and finally, it happened.

Jennifer: What’s your technical background, and how has it helped you build something as ambitious as a Kaspa-based DEX?

Sione: I hold a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Entrepreneurship — a combination that reflects how I operate: I’ve always been willing to take risks and chase opportunities.

Early in my career, I worked as a full-stack developer at a lean startup. Over time, I ended up managing almost everything related to R&D simply because I was the only one there for a while. That experience taught me to be resourceful, to move fast, and to understand every layer of product development.

By the time I started working on Kaspa, I had all the tools I needed to at least know what I didn’t know — and that’s key. I surrounded myself with strong people. I built a team with talented developers, many of them senior engineers from traditional tech backgrounds — total “normies,” not crypto-native.

One of them, Gilad — now our backend tech lead — became something of a Kaspa wizard. He cracked the WASM codebase and mastered Kaspa’s architecture inside and out. With that level of skill and dedication, we built Kaspiano — which evolved into Kaspa.com.

Regarding the DEX and upcoming EVM integration, I bring a solid understanding of Ethereum — including its theoretical background, tooling, and developer culture. But we’re also working with highly skilled smart contract engineers, including some recommended to us by the team at Igra Labs.

It’s a mix of hands-on technical know-how, strategic hiring, and a deep passion for the space that made this possible.

Jennifer: How did you first meet Christian Ludwig, the well-known Kaspa miner and entrepreneur? What drew you two into collaboration?

Sione: I first came across Christian through his posts on X. I knew he was a major Kaspa miner and whale, and I always respected his presence in the ecosystem.

That same week, a well-known PR community member, Silka, reached out to me. He helped out behind the scenes and even made a post about us on X — completely organic. It gave us great exposure, and momentum began to build around the project.

At the time, I was actively looking for an investor. I ended up commenting on one of Christian’s posts, asking him to DM me. Because he had just seen Silka’s tweet and already had us on his radar, he recognized the potential.

That was on a Monday. We scheduled a call for 7 PM — the same day — and within five hours of that call, we had closed both the investment and the collaboration.

I think he saw that we were genuinely grinding, working hard, and building something real — with a clear first-mover advantage on Kaspa. That clicked, and we moved fast.

You can learn more about Christian’s journey in our KASmedia interview with him in our KASmedia Mining Series: Interview with Christian Ludwig.

Jennifer: What kind of team have you assembled to help build what you’ve called the "Fastest DeFi"? Would you say it takes a crew of wizards to pull this off?

Sione: Today, we’re a team of around 20 people — and every one of them brings serious value. We have talented developers focused on UI/UX to ensure users have the smoothest experience possible and brilliant minds working behind the scenes on smart contract and protocol development.

It’s not just me — it takes a dedicated crew to pull this off. I wouldn’t call them wizards (yet, haha), but they’re skilled, focused, and consistent. We work hard every day to push the boundaries of what’s possible on Kaspa.

KaspaCom’s Decentralized Exchange

Jennifer: One of your stated goals is “onboarding the next wave of Kaspa users.” How does the DEX contribute to that mission?

Sione: Our goal isn’t just to build a swap — it’s to build a full onboarding experience.

The DEX is only one part of the bigger picture. We’re creating an ecosystem that includes Kaspa educational content, blogs, Kaspa facts, and a “Buy Kaspa” section to make onboarding as smooth as possible.

New users will be able to discover Kaspa through us, learn the basics, buy their first $KAS, and immediately start using powerful DeFi tools — all in one place. That’s how we bring the next wave of Kaspa users into the ecosystem.

Jennifer: You recently released a wallet at https://dev-wallet.kaspa.com, which supports swaps and is open-source. It’s been described by some as a jungle gym, black market, and underground railroad all rolled into one. Which feature are you most proud of?

Sione: We built the wallet as a flexible foundation — something that could support all the protocols and tools we’re creating while also being simple and accessible for users. One of the features I’m most proud of is full support for mobile browsers — no need for extensions or external apps. 

Users can swap, mint, and interact with the DEX directly from their phone.

It’s also fully open-source. We wanted to give the Kaspa ecosystem something real — a working wallet with clean references that developers can use to build their own tools. Building on Kaspa isn’t always easy, so we aimed to lower the barrier with something practical and extensible.

The source code is available here: https://github.com/KASPACOM/kaspacom-web-wallet

Jennifer: In late April, Kaspa.com experienced a DDoS attack, resulting in over 2 million requests within an hour. Despite the flood, user funds remained safe. How did the team respond, and what improvements have been made to security since?

Sione: At first, we were honestly confused — traffic spiked so quickly that we thought it might be a scalability issue on our end. However, after a quick investigation, we realized it was a targeted DDoS attack.

We moved fast. The team implemented IP blocking, added rate limiting, and introduced basic DDoS protection measures to stop the flood. The most important thing is that user funds were never at risk — we designed the system with a strong separation between frontend traffic and backend infrastructure from day one.

Since then, we’ve improved our monitoring, added more robust protections, and put in place automated detection for similar incidents in the future. It was a stress test — and we passed it. Now, we’re more resilient than ever.

Jennifer: You’re currently building across two L2s — Igra Labs and a Kaspa-native solution. Do you plan to continue operating across both? Are there plans to integrate with other L2s or even cross-chain solutions in the future?

Sione: Right now, we’re building our DEX to support both Igra Labs and Kasplex. But when it comes to more advanced tools — lending, staking, etc. — we’ll likely focus on a single L2 at first. The idea is to consolidate liquidity and avoid fragmenting the ecosystem, particularly in these early stages where TVL is most crucial.

Looking ahead, we’re excited about the potential for interoperability once ZK-based rollups become available on Kaspa. Currently, the rollups are optimistic-based, but ZK tech will open the door to faster, more secure cross-chain interactions.

Our long-term goal is a seamless user experience — where assets, dApps, and protocols can interact across chains in the background, allowing users to use the product without friction.

Jennifer: You mentioned in a recent X Spaces that you’re developing your own oracle solution. What kind of off-chain data are you most excited to connect to the Kaspa network?

Sione: We’re building an oracle because the ecosystem needs it — especially for things like lending platforms and stablecoin bridges. Without reliable off-chain data, those kinds of tools simply can’t function.

One of the things I’m most excited about is bringing stablecoins to Kaspa. It’s a key piece of the puzzle for onboarding users, attracting liquidity (TVL), and giving builders the confidence to create new protocols on top of it.

The moment users can safely lock their Kaspa and borrow against it — that’s when things really change. That’s when Kaspa goes from being just a fast, scalable base layer to a full DeFi economy.

Seeing the L2 ecosystem grow around this — with real-world use cases such as lending, staking, and trading — is what excites me the most.

Jennifer: There is growing interest in the idea that Kaspa will eventually act as the preferred Layer 2 for Bitcoin. What are the technical or philosophical reasons behind that, and how do you see Kaspa.com positioning itself if that future comes to pass?

Sione: I’d love to see that happen. It’s an exciting vision — one where Kaspa retains the core values and security principles of Bitcoin but adds the scalability, speed, and usability that BTC currently lacks.

If it ever becomes a reality, it would mean users could enjoy Bitcoin’s trustless base layer while interacting with apps, swaps, and even lending tools on a Kaspa-powered second layer. That’s powerful.

I feel the same about Ethereum, by the way — I’d love to see Kaspa become a neutral ground where multiple chains can scale securely.

But I’ll admit, it’s still more of a dream at this point. We’re not there yet. That said, if that future does come to pass, Kaspa.com will be ready.

An Exciting Future Awaits 

Jennifer: When NFTs and KRC20 tokens first launched on Kaspa, it sparked a minting frenzy, leading to the creation of numerous NFT collections and thousands of KRC20 tokens — with nearly 2,000 available on the Kaspa.com platform alone. What was your biggest takeaway from that moment?

Sione: It became clear to me that the Kaspa ecosystem is still young — in many ways, it’s innocent. Many community members were interacting with trading tools, memes, and speculative tokens for the first time. Many didn’t fully understand how to navigate that kind of environment, which made them more vulnerable to scams and bad actors.

That's when we realized we had a responsibility to provide better tools, clearer data, and greater transparency — so users could invest with confidence and avoid getting taken advantage of

Thankfully, the KRC20 standard didn’t have a minting fee for deployers, so the risk was lower. However, overall, it was a significant learning experience — for us and the entire community. It showed us the immense potential and the importance of guiding that growth in the right direction.

Jennifer: While many projects focus on memes and PFPs, some teams are solving real-world problems. Which Kaspa-based project has impressed you the most in terms of real-world impact?

Sione: There are some fun PFP projects like KasPunks, which have built strong communities. We’ve also launched our own collection — Yonatoshi — and people are loving the art. It’s 100% Kaspa-centric and original. (Fun fact: Yonatoshi = Yonatan + Satoshi.)

But beyond the art scene, I’ve been impressed by a few Tier 1 projects that are building real utility:

Ghoad has deployed mining infrastructure, generating actual revenue. They’ve built up a treasury in Kaspa, and their model shows how NFT communities can become self-sustaining.

BLOCKS has been building since day one and now runs over 50 miners. They’re the first real-world asset (RWA) token on Kaspa with consistent revenue — it’s been exciting to watch them grow and provide tangible value to the ecosystem.

We also have strong teams, such as Nacho and Kango, contributing in different ways — it’s inspiring to see the diversity of projects forming around Kaspa.

Just to be clear: I’m not invested in all of these projects, and of course — nothing here is financial advice (NFA). But from a builder’s perspective, I respect what they’re doing.

Jennifer: Can you share more about the lending platform you’re currently working on? What will set it apart, and do you have an expected launch timeline?

Sione: We're currently building a Kaspa-native lending platform, and we're forking AAVE as the foundation — one of the most battle-tested and trusted protocols in DeFi. This provides us with a strong and secure foundation to build upon, allowing us to tailor it to Kaspa's unique architecture and user needs.

There's no exact launch date yet because two major components still need to be completed: the stablecoin bridge and our oracle solution. These are essential for the platform to function properly — and we want to get them right.

If all goes well, we aim to launch within the next two months. The vision is to let users borrow against their $KAS, stay within the Kaspa ecosystem, and unlock real DeFi utility — safely and without needing to trust third parties or centralized bridges.

Getting the Word Out 

Jennifer: You’ve been active on X Spaces lately and have run creative events like the “Kaspa NFT Universe Minting Competition & Giveaway.” Why is it important for you to give back to the community?

Sione: We launched our NFT collection, Yonatoshi, to help fund our roadmap and keep building — and the response from the community has been incredible. We sold out over 30% of the collection early on, and the support, trust, and energy we’ve received from the community has meant everything to us.

I truly believe that great products don't just come from great tech — they thrive because of the people behind them. The Kaspa community has been pushing us forward by sharing feedback, attending events, and spreading the word. We're building with them and for them.

Our customer support is top-tier because we care. That’s why we do giveaways, competitions, and host spaces — it’s our way of giving back to the early supporters who made this journey possible. Without them, none of this would exist.

Jennifer: You also launched the KNS Domains Trading Competition. Do you think these kinds of games and competitions — essentially “gamifying” TradFi — are part of what draws people into the crypto space?

Sione: Definitely, with the KNS Domains Trading Competition, our goal was to incentivize users to engage with the platform — to trade, explore new tools, and interact with emerging protocols. At the same time, it helped raise awareness for KNS itself, which was a new and exciting development in the Kaspa ecosystem.

Gamified experiences like this are a big part of what draws people into crypto. They make learning and using the tools fun while also driving real usage and adoption. When done right, it's a win-win — users enjoy the experience, and the ecosystem grows stronger because of it.

Staying Connected

Jennifer: For those inspired by what you’re building, what’s the best way to stay up to date with Kaspa.com’s latest developments and upcoming releases? Are there any specific channels where the community can follow along or even get involved in the project?

Sione: The best place to stay updated and catch early alpha is our main Telegram channel — that’s where we post announcements, answer questions, and connect directly with the community.

https://t.me/KaspaComOfficial

We’re also active on X (@KaspaCom) and regularly host Spaces, giveaways, and dev updates. Whether you're a builder, investor, or just curious about what we’re doing — you're welcome to join in.

We’re building in the open, and we truly believe in growing with the community. So, if you want to stay in the loop or even get involved — just hop in.