Two tokens use the kUSD ticker on Base.
Kerne's is 0x5C2EfdF0D8D286959b42308966bc2B97f5680AA3. Check the address before you swap.
The two contracts.
ERC-20 symbols are not unique and are not registered anywhere, so two unrelated issuers can use the same ticker on the same chain. That is what has happened here. Our other two disambiguation pages resolve on chain: the other kUSD is on Ethereum, the other KUSD is on BNB Chain. This one does not. Both of these tokens are on Base, and both report kUSD, so the chain ID separates nothing and the address is the check.
| Attribute | Kerne Protocol (this site) | K Dollar (different issuer) |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | 0x5C2EfdF0D8D286959b42308966bc2B97f5680AA3 | 0x6FB09847417e33A1CE75d3B324015D4C0AeF4D61 |
| On-chain name | Kerne Synthetic Dollar | K Dollar |
| Symbol | kUSD | kUSD |
| Chain | Base (8453) | Base (8453) |
| Decimals | 18 | 6 |
| Issuer | Kerne Protocol, kerne.fi | Bankcoin Capital, bankcoin.capital |
| Wider family | kUSD and skUSD only. No other currency denominations. | The kStable family of fiat-referenced tokens (kEUR, kGBP, kJPY and others). |
How to check, in seconds.
The address is the only fully reliable check, and it is the one worth making a habit. Two secondary tells are readable on chain if you already hold a balance and want to know which token it is:
- decimals() returns 18 for Kerne's kUSD and 6 for K Dollar.
- name() returns Kerne Synthetic Dollar against K Dollar.
- The ticker is not a check. Both tokens report kUSD, and both are entitled to.
Kerne's kUSD is on Base and only on Base. We have never deployed it on another chain and never redeployed it at another address. Everything Kerne issues is listed with its address at /verify-anything, and the same set is machine-readable at /facts.json.
This is a record, not a complaint.
Nobody did anything wrong here. Ticker collisions are a property of ERC-20, which has no symbol registry and never has had one. Bankcoin Capital's token infringes nothing, we make no claim about it, and we are not asking anyone to choose between the two. We publish this for one reason: a holder who reads about Kerne's kUSD and then buys "kUSD on Base" through an aggregator can end up holding a different asset than the one they read about, and the address above is what prevents that.
Two more projects share the ticker on other chains, and those are separated by chain rather than by address: Kernel Protocol's kUSD on Ethereum mainnet and KernelDAO's KUSD on BNB Chain. Kolibri USD on Tezos is a fourth. If you were looking for any of them, those pages point the way out.