Solana Foundation Mediates as Kamino-Jupiter Lend Feud Escalates

The Solana ecosystem's latest drama isn't about a memecoin—it's a high-stakes protocol power struggle. The Solana Foundation has stepped into the ring as tensions between lending protocol Kamino and liquidity giant Jupiter intensify over the future of decentralized finance on the chain.

The Heart of the Dispute

Forget friendly competition. This clash cuts to the core of governance, tokenomics, and who controls the lending rails for billions in liquidity. Kamino's approach to leveraged yield farming butted heads with Jupiter's vision for its nascent Lend product, creating friction that threatened to spill over into user experience and protocol security.

Foundation Plays Referee

The Foundation's move signals this is more than a minor spat—it's a systemic risk. By intervening, they're not picking sides but forcing a table. The goal? Establish clear communication channels and de-escalate before developers start choosing camps and fragmenting liquidity—a nightmare scenario for any chain's DeFi ambitions.

Why This Matters for SOL

Healthy debate is one thing; a public feud that spooks institutional capital is another. The Foundation's proactive mediation aims to prevent the kind of messy, public infighting that makes traditional finance guys smirk into their lattes about 'governance theater.' Success here could solidify Solana's reputation for mature conflict resolution. Failure? Let's just say it's cheaper to fix a protocol dispute than to rebuild investor confidence.

In the end, the market will judge this not by the drama, but by whether SOL's DeFi ecosystem emerges stronger or simply more bureaucratic. After all, what's a few billion in TVL between frenemies?

In brief

• Liu warns Kamino and Jupiter Lend that public disputes may damage confidence in Solana’s $5B lending market.
• Rapid Jupiter Lend growth sparks concerns from rivals over how collateral is reused and how risks are disclosed.
• Kamino claims Jupiter’s vault isolation messaging misled users, citing exposure tied to looping strategies.
• Kamino blocks Jupiter’s migration tool, saying access will return once risk details are clearly communicated.

Solana Foundation President Urges Calm

Liu joined the discussion as the two protocols continued to criticize each other’s design choices and approach to user safety. The solana Foundation president noted that the network’s lending market sits at about $5 billion—far below Ethereum’s $50 billion and the larger collateral bases seen in traditional finance.

She stressed that the conflict may be hurting Solana more than helping it. Liu added that internal disputes divert attention from expanding the network’s presence in crypto lending.

She called on both teams to shift their focus from public clashes to growing Solana’s presence in crypto and traditional finance lending. Liu signaled concern that continued disputes could undermine user confidence in the network’s DeFi sector.

Jupiter Lend, which launched in August, quickly climbed to $1 billion in TVL. The rapid growth drew questions from rival protocols about its handling of collateral and whether users were given a clear view of how risk is managed.

Kamino founder Marius issued strong criticism, arguing that Jupiter Lend promoted its vaults as isolated when, in his view, they were not. He said users were not given enough information about the exposure created when collateral is reused inside the system.

Kamino Pushes Back Against Jupiter Lend Over “Zero Contagion” Messaging

Jupiter Lend co-founder Kash Dhanda responded by acknowledging that earlier “zero contagion” language was not fully accurate, though he insisted that risks stay tied to each individual asset.

Key points in the dispute include:

• Claims that Jupiter Lend’s vaults recycle collateral across positions without early, clear disclosure.
• Concerns that this structure may expose users to risks linked to other assets involved in looping strategies.
• Statements from Kamino and Fluid argue that Jupiter’s messaging did not fully match actual vault behavior.
• Screenshots and videos showing older Jupiter posts describing vaults as non-contaminating.
• Kamino’s decision to block Jupiter’s migration tool due to concerns about how risks were described.

Marius explained that he WOULD not allow easy migrations if users did not fully understand how their collateral works inside Jupiter Lend. He explained that someone supplying SOL and borrowing USDC could still have their SOL lent to loopers linked to assets like JupSOL or INF, giving them exposure to more than just the pair they chose.

He added that Kamino would restore migration access once risks are clearly communicated on both sides and two-way tools provide accurate information.

Dhanda maintains that Jupiter Lend’s structure keeps risks contained at the asset level and that rehypothecation is part of how yields are generated. However, leaders at Kamino and Fluid are still maintaining a doubtful stance.

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