MilkyWay
The first liquid staking token for Celestia, gone two years after launch
A liquid staking protocol that issued milkTIA, a tradable claim on staked Celestia tokens, and later ran its own chain for restaking.
- Capital raised (announced)
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 2024 |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JayB Kim | — | "Back to zero—working solo, moving fast with AI, and building from first principles" | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
December 2023
Reported as the first liquid staking protocol for Celestia, built as a smart contract on Osmosis.
30 April 2024
The company described plans for hiring, operations and a governance token.
15 January 2026
Token balances were snapshotted on 14 January 2026 for a final pro-rata payout of protocol fees in USDC.
26 March 2026
The team said it had upgraded its chain, returned all assets on it to their original networks and opened withdrawals for staked-token holders.
How it ended
In January 2026 the team announced it would wind down and then close the protocol permanently. Reports of the statement said decentralised-finance demand in its ecosystem had fallen short, restaking interest had faded and a payment card launched too late to relieve financial pressure. Accumulated protocol fees were converted to USDC and paid out to token holders, and in March 2026 the team returned all assets on its chain to their original networks and began shutting the chain down.
Still alive
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Sources
10 sources behind this page.
- 1MilkyWay Protocol announces gradual cessation of operations and permanent closure · Bitget News (item credited to AIcoin) · Jan 2026
- 2MilkyWay Shutdown Moves Ahead as TIA Returns to Celestia · Coin Gabbar · Mar 2026
- 3MilkyWay secures $5M in seed funding led by Binance Lab · CoinJournal · Apr 2024
- 4Binance Labs Co-Leads MilkyWay in $5M Seed Funding Round · DailyCoin · Apr 2024
- 5Polychain and Binance Labs invest in Celestia liquid staking protocol MilkyWay · Invezz · Apr 2024
- 6JayB — founder + builder (personal site) · JayB Kim
- 7KuCoin Will Support The Final Protocol Fee Distribution to MilkyWay (MILK) Holders · KuCoin · Jan 2026
- 8Celestia Staking Protocol MilkyWay Raises $5 Million · The Crypto Times · Apr 2024
- 9X account record for @milky_way_zone · twitterapi.io
- 10X post 2011770175566332325 from @milky_way_zone (link to the wind-down article) · twitterapi.io · Jan 2026
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.