Reasons for KAIA's strong surge:
1. How has the price of KAIA changed in the last few days compared to today?
On January 20, 2026, KAIA just hit a historical low of about 0.0503 USD.
As of today on CoinMarketCap, KAIA is around 0.08 USD, up over 60% from the bottom in just 3 days; in the last 24 hours alone, it increased by ~40%, with trading volume rising over 4 times (483%) compared to the previous day.
This means that this is a very strong 'bounce' from the oversold region.
2. News that excites the market
#1. Quack AI x Kaia partnership (January 22)
On January 22, Quack AI announced a strategic partnership with Kaia to build an "agent-native" stablecoin infrastructure for payments, settlements, and tokenized assets across Asia, emphasizing Kaia's fast finality and gas abstraction.
This event was listed on CoinMarketCal as an "integration/partnership" carrying a very hot narrative: AI agents + stablecoin + on-chain capital, even though there is no specific incentive program yet.
Such news is usually enough to trigger short-term FOMO, especially when the token is just at the bottom.
#2. New Web3 game on LINE (January 19)
On January 19, Kaia announced news about the Web3 game "Magic Squad" launching on LINE NEXT’s Dapp Portal, allowing purchases with BORA tokens and using Kaia Wallet with a gas abstraction mechanism (users pay gas fees with BORA, not KAIA).
This indicates that Kaia is beginning to have real use cases in the gaming sector and is being "embedded" into the super app LINE – a significant positive for narrative adoption.
#3. MEV Auction upgrade & v2.1.0 (January 8)
In early January, Kaia rolled out the v2.1.0 upgrade with support for MEV Auction (KIP-249) and a bid fee refund program to improve network economics and attract validators/searchers.
This is an upgrade to the "DeFi-friendly" infrastructure, adding to the story of Kaia as a high-performance L1, with 1 second finality, optimized for stablecoins and on-chain finance in Asia.
These pieces together create a narrative: stable L1, with games, MEV, stablecoin & AI, enough for traders to use as a "legitimate" reason for the pump.
3. Technical factors & speculative cash flow
#1. Strong rebound from the oversold area
KAIA has decreased >80% from its historical peak of 0.415 USD to a low of ~0.05 USD, before bouncing back.
Many technical analysis pages have previously evaluated KAIA in a long-term downtrend, but short-term bullish/overbought signals have appeared following the increase at the beginning of January, indicating that the bottom-fishing force has gradually emerged.
In price areas that have been "dumped" for a long time, just one moderately positive news is enough to create a short squeeze or relief rally.
b. Volume & derivatives spike
In the past 24 hours, the spot trading volume has increased ~480% on CoinMarketCap – a sign of new money flowing in, not just a normal "light shake."
CoinGlass data shows that KAIA's futures volume (~20.5M USD/24h) is significantly higher than the spot (~2.4M USD), with open interest around 6.7M USD – indicating that derivatives are playing a large role, easily creating strong two-way volatility.
When derivatives are active, prices can easily spike sharply in a short time just because of liquidating long/short positions.
4. The longer narrative context: "stablecoin-first chain"
Kaia is officially positioned as the "stablecoin layer behind everyday apps in Asia," aiming to become the payment/stablecoin infrastructure for LINE, KakaoTalk, and the Kakao/LINE ecosystem.
In 2025, the native USDT on Kaia and the KRW stablecoin plan previously drove KAIA's price up significantly along with a surge in derivative volume, indicating that the market is very sensitive to any news related to stablecoins on this chain.
The new cooperation with Quack AI (stablecoin + AI) revives the narrative of being the "stablecoin-first L1 in Asia" just as the price hits a low, leading to a stronger price reaction.
