What Is Kana Labs (Xyra Labs)? | Aptos's First Fully On-Chain Perps DEX

Kana Perps is an exchange for perpetual futures (perps) running on Aptos. Its biggest highlight is that it runs the order book itself—the very thing most exchanges offload to their own servers—on-chain, including matching and settlement. The major airdrop campaigns have already run their course, and the focus has now shifted to the revamped version planned for 2026 and the actual feel of execution when you trade on the book.

👉 Open the Kana Labs (Xyra Labs) official site

From order intake to matching, execution, and settlement, Kana Perps handles all of it through smart contracts on Aptos[1]. In October 2025 the team renamed itself from Kana Labs to Xyra Labs, putting forward a vision of unifying cross-chain swaps, liquidity aggregation, and decentralized perps onto a single platform[2]. The product lineage is continuous despite the name change; you won't get confused if you simply think of the former Kana Perps as now being called Xyra Perps.

It offers perps for APT, BTC, and ETH, with up to 20x leverage available[1]. A full set of order features—isolated margin, take-profit/stop-loss, and a two-way hedge mode—is at a level you can consider standard equipment in this space. What you should look at to make a decision is the depth of the book and the state of the token, rather than this feature list.

The core of Kana Perps is that it places the order book and matching engine onto Econia, a high-performance engine on Aptos, completing price matching and execution in a single transaction[1][3]. Running a limit order book fully on-chain is technically hard, because the amount of state to maintain is large and the gas and latency constraints are heavy. That's exactly why many decentralized exchanges fall back on either the AMM approach, which leaves pricing to a pool, or a compromise that places only the order book on an operator's server (off-chain).

Econia is designed around Aptos's parallel transaction execution (Block-STM), folding book updates and execution into a single operation[3]. Unlike an AMM, which is weak at price discovery and slippage (the gap between expected and actual execution price), and unlike an off-chain book, which sacrifices self-custody and transparency, it is structured to aim for a limit-order experience close to that of a centralized exchange (CEX) while keeping your assets under your own control. Fees are around 0.05%, and market orders are gasless (a sponsored transaction in which the project covers the fee on your behalf), presenting an operating feel that leans toward a CEX[1].

That said, no public quantitative benchmark confirms how far this design actually delivers on "fast and cheap." Even if the mechanism is sound, whether the execution speed and book depth are genuinely CEX-grade is unverified, and you should view design-level soundness and the real, measured feel separately. And the strengths of self-custody and transparency pay off immediately only for intermediate-to-advanced traders who can go pull prices themselves even on a thin book; for ordinary participants they remain a potential edge until liquidity matures.

KANA is a token designed as the redemption target for reward points. What to note is that, as of this article's research (June 2026), there is no publicly confirmable issuance date or listing price, and points are stated to be "exchanged for KANA after the TGE (token generation event)"[4].

The total supply cap is disclosed, but circulating supply, allocation ratios, and conversion rates are all undetermined. There is no external price API to verify a price, and price-tracking sites merely display "renamed to Xyra Labs" with no live price[5]. You should approach KANA understanding that it is a token at a stage where its value has not yet been priced.

As far as can be publicly confirmed, there is no standing airdrop slot where simply connecting now guarantees a free distribution. Season 2 (Points & Referrals), funded by up to 5 million KANA, already ran from December 3, 2024 to January 1, 2025[6], and the subsequent Xyra Perps Year-End Trading Rally (reward pool of up to $20,000 USDT) closed, running from December 26, 2025 to January 16, 2026[7].

What remains is room to set yourself up for the future. The team has announced for 2026 a Xyra Perps V2 with a revamped order book and matching engine, plus copy trading and Vaults[8], and a next season or a TGE may move in step with this. If you're the type who actually trades on the book, it's worth accumulating a base of points with low effort—but this is about something that could be reflected if a standing program resumes, and it does not guarantee any distribution as of now. If you want to set up, here are the steps.

1. Prepare an Aptos-compatible wallet (Petra, Pontem, etc.) and put in a small amount of APT for gas

2. Connect your wallet on the official site and check the current UI and the announcement status of the next program

3. If you'll actually trade, use Kana Perps (APT, BTC, ETH; up to 20x) with low effort to prepare for a program restart

4. Watch the official X (@xyralabs_), Medium, and Discord for announcements of the TGE, the next season, and Xyra Perps V2

👉 Check the current UI of Kana Perps (Xyra Perps) and announcements of the next program

Looking at the closeness of design—fully on-chain order-book trading—the relevant comparisons are order-book perps DEXs like Hyperliquid, edgeX, and Ondo Perps. The figures below are aligned using the same definitions from CoinGecko derivatives (24-hour volume, open interest, number of listed perp pairs) to avoid differences in how each exchange counts them[9]. Because KANA is not listed in that aggregation, it can't be placed on the numeric rows, and note that its scale relies on the team's self-reported figures.

The fact that the empty cells are concentrated on the Kana Perps side itself represents where it stands. The team summarized that in 2025 it reached a cumulative perps trading volume of roughly $2B[10], but this is a cumulative figure—different from recent volume and open interest, which show how much depth the book has right now. Even on the same fully-on-chain playing field, you can read it as being at a stage where it's an order of magnitude behind the leaders in liquidity.

The thing most directly tied to actual harm is the thinness of the book. At a stage where it trails the leaders in volume and open interest, placing a sizable market order easily causes slippage—where the execution price deviates from what you expected—and the more leveraged the position, the more it leads to unfavorable fills or unintended liquidations. Even though being able to use up to 20x is itself standard, keep in mind the relationship that the combination of high leverage on a thin book is the most dangerous.

Next is that KANA is not yet listed. Even if you accumulate points, no one currently knows what value they'll ultimately be exchanged for. It's safe to treat both the conversion rate and the distribution timing as undetermined until the official TGE announcement, and if you regard points as a locked-in return, your expectations will be disappointed.

Regional restrictions also need checking. Whether it can be used from Japan and how covered regions are treated can change for a product that handles derivatives, so before connecting, verify the latest official terms of use yourself.

For intermediate-to-advanced traders who can read the book themselves and go after prices with limit orders even on thin liquidity, it's worth trying as a place to experience a limit-order flow close to a CEX while keeping self-custody. For people betting on Aptos DeFi who want to experience a core ecosystem product early, there's also meaning in trying the current UI.

Conversely, it's not currently suited to people who want to join right now aiming for a guaranteed free distribution, or to those who want to run sizable positions on the premise of deep liquidity and tight spreads. The former is because the distribution slots are already closed; the latter because the book's depth hasn't reached that of the leaders.

Our take splits clearly by segment. For intermediate-to-advanced traders going after the feel of the book in real trading, it's worth trying now—because a fully on-chain limit-order experience is rare, and there's meaning in accumulating points with low effort ahead of 2026's Xyra Perps V2 and the next season. On the other hand, for those chasing the immediate EV of a free distribution, we recommend holding off: the guaranteed distribution slots are closed, KANA's value is pre-pricing, and you can't calculate the expected value even if you act now. For long-term watchers following Aptos DeFi, rather than putting in heavy capital, the realistic approach is to watch while lightly trying the current UI until the official TGE and V2 announcements appear.

Q. Are Kana Labs and Xyra Labs different things?

They're the same project. In October 2025 Kana Labs renamed to Xyra Labs, and the Kana Perps exchange feature is also offered under the name Xyra Perps. Older sources may still list the old name, so don't mistake them for different things based on the name alone.

Q. Bottom line, can I join now and get something for free?

There is no guaranteed free-distribution slot at this time. Season 2's up-to-5-million KANA ended in early 2025, and the $20,000 USDT year-end rally ended in early 2026. The next distribution awaits announcements of the 2026-planned Xyra Perps V2 or the TGE, so watching the official X and Discord is the surest approach.

Q. How little can I start with?

Connecting itself is possible with a small amount of APT for gas, and a lump-sum deposit isn't required. However, since leveraged trading carries slippage and liquidation risk on a thin book, we recommend first checking how the book behaves with a small amount you can afford to lose.

Q. Can I use it from Japan?

Because it's a product that handles derivatives, how covered regions are treated can change. Check eligibility against the latest official terms of use each time. This article does not guarantee verification of that.

We've gathered official information and articles on competitors with similar designs.

• Official site (Kana Labs / Xyra Labs): https://kanalabs.io

• Live trading frontend (Xyra Perps): https://www.xyra.trade/

• Official docs (Kana Perps): https://docs.kanalabs.io/perpetual-futures/kana-perps

• Official Medium (Xyra Labs): https://medium.com/xyra-labs

• Hyperliquid's airdrop and features

• edgeX's airdrop and features

Kana Perps is a product that took on the hard problem of putting the order book itself on-chain head-on, using Aptos's parallel execution to sketch out a limit-order experience close to a CEX while keeping self-custody. But how far that picture satisfies "fast and cheap" in actual measurements is still to come; the token is pre-pricing, and the free-distribution window has closed for now. While acknowledging the soundness of the design, until the book's depth and the outline of the TGE become clear, we think the right distance to keep with this project right now is to measure it as an object of observation rather than conviction.

Sources

1. CoinFomania — https://coinfomania.com/kana-labs-launches-first-fully-on-chain-perpetuals-dex-on-aptos-mainnet-with-gasless-clob-based-trading-functionality-promising-fast-and-frictionless-trading/

2. Xyra Labs (Medium, 2025) — https://xyralabs.medium.com/kana-labs-rebrands-to-xyra-labs-a-new-chapter-in-web3-innovation-b53f7d6d455a

3. Kana Labs Docs (Orderbook) — https://docs.kanalabs.io/perpetual-futures/kana-perps/breaking-down-kana-perps/orderbook

4. Kana Labs Docs (Tokenomics) — https://docs.kanalabs.io/tokenomics-and-governance/kana-labs-tokenomics

5. CryptoRank (KANA price page) — https://cryptorank.io/price/kana-labs

6. airdrops.io (Kana Labs) — https://airdrops.io/kana-labs/

7. X / @Ghosterx4x (2025) — https://x.com/Ghosterx4x/status/2004732572266528949

8. Xyra Labs (2025 Roundup, Medium) — https://medium.com/xyra-labs/xyra-labs-2025-roundup-7f616badaa27

9. CoinGecko Derivatives — https://www.coingecko.com/en/derivatives

10. Xyra Labs (2025 Roundup, Medium) — https://medium.com/xyra-labs/xyra-labs-2025-roundup-7f616badaa27