Kamino Review
Publishes what it charges, per market
of 10
Kamino publishes its protocol spread market by market — 11% to 20% of interest paid — states outright that there are no deposit, withdrawal or origination fees, and documents its liquidation penalty scale from 0.1% to a 10% maximum.
No money changes hands. This is a non-commercial project: no advertising, no sponsored placements, and no affiliate or referral links. Links to the services below earn us nothing. Every overall score is the plain average of the criteria shown on the page, so you can check the arithmetic yourself — see our rating methodology and how the site is funded.
Protocol spread
11% to 20% of interest paid, by market
Deposit/withdrawal/origination fees
None
Liquidation penalty
0.1% immediate, scaling to 10% maximum
Close factor
10% per liquidation event
Licence
BUSL-1.1, change date 17 Nov 2027 to GPL-2.0-or-later
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (10.0 + 4.0 + 10.0 + 3.0 + 9.0) ÷ 5 = 7.2.
Pros
- Protocol spread published per market: 11% SOL, 15% USDC and others, 20% in JLP and Altcoins markets
- States plainly there are no deposit, withdrawal or origination fees
- Liquidation penalty published: 0.1% immediate, scaling to a 10% maximum
- Close factor of 10% per liquidation event published
- Five audit firms named with dates, plus a $1.5m bug bounty
Cons
- Business Source License 1.1 until 17 November 2027, not an open-source licence
- Governance, upgrade authority and any timelock are not stated
- Per-asset liquidation LTV values are not published
Fee disclosure done properly
Kamino publishes a table of protocol spreads by market — 11% on SOL, 15% on USDC, USDT and liquid staking tokens, 20% in the JLP and Altcoins markets — and clarifies that these are a percentage of interest paid by borrowers, not of principal. It then states outright that there are no deposit, withdrawal or origination fees.
Naming what you charge and naming what you do not charge is the clearest disclosure in this category, and it is why the fee score is the highest here.
Liquidation on a published scale
The penalty starts at 0.1% for an immediate liquidation and scales up to a 10% maximum for a delayed one, with a 10% close factor per event. A borrower can work out the worst case.
Two gaps
The licence is BUSL-1.1 running to November 2027, and nothing states who holds upgrade authority over the programs or whether any delay applies to changes.
How it compares
Fluid
Four audit firms, almost nothing else published
Compound
Timelock-controlled, with a lapsed licence date
Radiant Capital
72-hour timelock, no licence at all
Spark
Publishes the close factor that most protocols hide
Silo Finance
Liquidation fee fixed at deployment, forever
Aave
49 audit reports and a stated governance delay
Euler
Governance limits enforced permanently in code
Venus Protocol
The most precisely documented governance delays
Morpho
GPL-licensed with published liquidation curve
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Kamino — Borrow fees and protocol spread — checked
- 2.Kamino — liquidations — checked
- 3.Kamino klend — LICENSE — checked
- 4.Kamino — audits — checked
Frequently asked questions
What does Kamino charge?
Kamino publishes a protocol spread of 11% to 20% of interest paid depending on the market, and states there are no deposit, withdrawal or origination fees.
What is Kamino's liquidation penalty?
0.1% for an immediate liquidation, scaling up to a maximum of 10% for a delayed one, with a 10% close factor per liquidation event.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.