What is Koi Finance (KOI) crypto coin? The truth about a dead DeFi project on zkSync

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Koi Finance (KOI) is not a thriving crypto project. It’s a ghost. Launched as a DeFi platform on zkSync Era, KOI was meant to be a one-stop hub for swapping, farming, and bonding tokens with near-zero fees. But today, it has $0 in daily trading volume, only 201 holders, and no active development. If you’re wondering whether KOI is worth your time, the answer is simple: it’s not.

What Koi Finance was supposed to be

Koi Finance started as Mute Protocol, a DeFi project built on zkSync, Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solution. In April 2024, the team rebranded to Koi Finance and swapped MUTE tokens for KOI at a rate of 1 MUTE to 12.5 KOI. The goal? To create a faster, cheaper, and more flexible decentralized exchange on zkSync.

Technically, it had potential. Koi offered two types of liquidity pools: concentrated (like Uniswap V3) and standard (like Uniswap V2). It let users place limit orders, stake tokens for higher yields, and even buy bonds to earn rewards. A standout feature? You could pay gas fees in any token you held-no need for ETH. Transactions claimed to finish in under a second, thanks to zkRollup tech.

The interface was clean. The team had real blockchain experience-they built the first Bitcoin-to-UTXO atomic swap and worked on Zerocoin privacy tech. But none of that mattered if no one used it.

Why KOI crashed harder than the rest of crypto

When KOI launched, zkSync was already crowded. SyncSwap controlled nearly 70% of the DEX market on zkSync. SpaceFi, zkSwap, and others were growing fast. Koi Finance didn’t offer anything new enough to steal users.

Its price peaked at $0.09344 on April 23, 2024-the same day it rebranded. Since then, it’s lost 99.16% of its value. As of November 14, 2025, KOI traded at $0.0007693. That’s not a market dip. That’s a collapse.

Why? Because no one was trading it. CoinMarketCap reports $0 in 24-hour volume. No one’s buying. No one’s selling. Even the official website shows no live trades. The token’s market cap is just $393,000, while its fully diluted value (if all 1 billion tokens were in circulation) is $786,000. That means over half the supply is locked up, unused, and worthless.

Who still holds KOI-and why

There are only 201 wallet addresses holding KOI. For comparison, Uniswap has over 1.2 million holders. SyncSwap, a zkSync rival, has tens of thousands. Koi’s tiny holder count isn’t accidental. It’s a sign of total abandonment.

Most of these 201 holders are likely early investors who never sold after the rebrand. Or maybe bots. There’s no community behind it. No active Discord. No Telegram group. No recent Reddit posts. The official Twitter account (@koi_finance) has 4,200 followers-less than 10% of what SyncSwap has.

Even the project’s GitHub repo hasn’t seen a meaningful update since March 2024. No new code. No bug fixes. No features. The team vanished.

An empty liquidity pool interface flickers on a cracked screen as a hesitant hand reaches toward it.

The rebrand that didn’t save anything

The switch from Mute to Koi wasn’t a fresh start. It was a last gasp. Mute Protocol had already lost most of its users and liquidity before the rebrand. Swapping tokens at a 1:12.5 ratio didn’t create value-it just diluted it further.

There was no marketing push. No partnerships. No influencers promoting it. No press coverage from major outlets like Messari or Delphi Digital. No analyst reports. No exchange listings beyond tiny, low-liquidity ones.

Rebranding doesn’t fix a broken product. It just changes the name on a tombstone.

Can you still use Koi Finance today?

Technically, yes. You can connect your wallet to the Koi Finance website and try to swap KOI for other tokens on zkSync. But here’s the catch: there’s no liquidity. No one’s trading. So if you try to sell your KOI, you won’t find a buyer. If you try to buy, you’ll see empty pools.

Even if you had KOI, you couldn’t earn meaningful yields. Farming rewards dried up because no one’s depositing tokens. Bonding programs stopped because no one’s participating. The entire ecosystem is frozen.

And forget about developer tools. There’s no API. No documentation. No SDK. No tutorials. If you’re a developer looking to build on Koi, there’s nothing to build on.

How Koi Finance compares to real zkSync DEXs

Here’s what real DeFi projects on zkSync look like in 2025:

Koi Finance vs Top zkSync DEXs (2025)
Feature Koi Finance (KOI) SyncSwap SpaceFi
24-hour trading volume $0 $50M+ $15M+
Active users (est.) 0 50,000+ 20,000+
Token holders 201 50,000+ 30,000+
Development activity None since March 2024 Weekly updates Weekly updates
Community channels Inactive Active Discord, Telegram Active Discord, Telegram
Price (Nov 2025) $0.00077 $0.12 $0.08

Koi Finance doesn’t just lose to these projects-it doesn’t even register as competition. SyncSwap and SpaceFi have real users, real volume, and real teams building daily. Koi is a shell.

A digital graveyard with a KOI tombstone under a stormy sky, while thriving DeFi projects glow in the distance.

Is KOI a good investment?

No. Not even close.

Investing in KOI today is like buying shares in a company that shut down its factory, fired its staff, and deleted its website. The token has no utility, no liquidity, and no future.

Some might argue, “It’s cheap-what’s the risk?” But the risk isn’t losing money. The risk is wasting time, holding an asset that can’t be sold, and getting caught up in a dead project’s ghost story.

There’s no recovery path. No roadmap. No team announcement. No news. The market has spoken: KOI is dead.

What happened to the team?

The original developers behind Mute/Koi had solid credentials. They built advanced ZK tech before. That makes their failure more puzzling.

But technical skill doesn’t guarantee success in DeFi. You need community. You need marketing. You need trust. You need to outlast the competition.

Koi Finance had none of that. The team disappeared after the rebrand. No updates. No explanations. No apologies. Just silence.

It’s a lesson: even the smartest teams can fail if they ignore the human side of crypto.

Final verdict: KOI is a cautionary tale

Koi Finance isn’t a crypto coin you should research, buy, or hold. It’s a case study in how not to build a DeFi project.

It had the tech. It had the timing. It had the team. But it had no users. No trust. No momentum. And in crypto, that’s fatal.

If you’re exploring zkSync, stick with SyncSwap, SpaceFi, or other projects with real volume, active teams, and communities. Avoid anything with $0 trading volume and fewer than 500 holders. They’re not hidden gems-they’re digital graves.

Is Koi Finance (KOI) still active?

No. Koi Finance has been effectively abandoned since mid-2024. There’s been no development activity on its GitHub since March 2024, no updates to its website, and zero trading volume on all exchanges. The team has not made any public statements since the rebrand.

Can I trade KOI on Coinbase or Binance?

No. KOI is not listed on any major exchange like Coinbase, Binance, or Kraken. It only exists on tiny, low-liquidity DEXs on zkSync, and even there, no one is trading it. You can’t buy or sell it meaningfully.

Why did Koi Finance fail when zkSync was growing?

Koi Finance failed because it didn’t differentiate itself enough from stronger competitors like SyncSwap and SpaceFi. Even though it had good tech, it lacked marketing, community building, and consistent development. While zkSync’s total value locked hit $1.2 billion in 2024, Koi captured 0% of that growth.

What happened to the MUTE tokens?

All MUTE tokens were swapped for KOI at a 1:12.5 ratio in April 2024. The old MUTE token was discontinued. The swap didn’t revive interest-it just turned a dying project into a dead one with a new name.

Should I buy KOI because it’s cheap?

Absolutely not. A low price doesn’t mean a good investment. KOI has no liquidity, no demand, and no future. Buying it means locking up funds you’ll never be able to sell. It’s not a bargain-it’s a trap.