Trails partners with Katana to solve DeFi fragmentation with 1-click liquidity and real yield

DeFi adoption has long been held back by crypto fragmentation.

Liquidity is scattered across chains, tokens, and wallets, leaving most assets idle and most user journeys broken before they begin. This fragmentation also slows the adoption of vault-bridged assets, which rely on liquidity that users can move freely across chains. Trails provides the complementary transaction rails that allow liquidity to travel cross-chain in 1-click, facilitating greater adoption of VaultBridge assets (vbAssets). Katana then turns that liquidity into productive capital with deep pools and real yield.

Together, Trails and Katana create a unified DeFi experience where value flows naturally, and users no longer face the complexity that has previously slowed crypto adoption.

The current problem in DeFi

DeFi promised a new financial system, but has struggled to deliver on that vision.

Liquidity remains scattered and underutilized. Most assets sit idle once they reach the chain, spread thin across apps chasing short-term incentives. Yields are often driven by inflation rather than real economic activity, attracting mercenary capital that disappears as soon as rewards fade. Bridged assets gather without purpose, and the system loses energy as fast as it gains it.

This fragmentation also slows the flywheel behind Katana's VaultBridge and vbAssets. These assets are built to pull liquidity into vaults so strategies can compound, and incentives stay aligned, but cross‑chain friction stops a lot of users long before they ever reach yield.

Trails removes that friction and routes liquidity straight into Katana’s core apps and VaultBridge in 1‑click, so users get active on Katana faster, vault strategies compound more consistently, and liquidity across the ecosystem gets deeper instead of staying shallow.

Trails solves this for partners like Katana by removing friction at every layer and directing liquidity to where it can be truly productive: swapping, funding, and earning.

How Trails and Katana deliver the DeFi solution

Trails is built to solve crypto’s fragmentation problem that has slowed DeFi for years, making the entire ecosystem more unified, fluid, and accessible.

“Fragmentation has been the biggest obstacle holding DeFi back, and Trails was built to solve exactly that,” said Peter Kieltyka, CEO of Trails and Sequence. “Teaming up with Katana means users can benefit from yield opportunities from anywhere in just 1-click, and developers can rely on a unified flow that works across their entire ecosystem. This is the fix DeFi has needed.”

By connecting cross-chain liquidity directly to Katana’s vaults and core apps, Trails strengthens the Katana flywheel. More portable liquidity means more deposits into vaults and deeper liquidity across the ecosystem, which expands the demand for vbAssets and reinforces Katana’s economic engine.

Katana uses Trails to natively abstract chains inside the app. Trails powers all cross-chain bridge, swap, and deposit flows so users can fund opportunities or enter vaults from any EVM chain, wallet, or token in 1-click. Trails handles intent orchestration, routing, and settlement behind the scenes, transforming multi-step transactions into a seamless user flow.

This unified flow also amplifies the performance of Katana’s liquidity venues. As Trails routes swaps across integrated DEXs, including Katana’s Sushiswap pools, it directs volume into the deepest liquidity sources, strengthens LP returns, and increases the yield that vaults can distribute.

As part of their app relaunch, Katana uses Trails to enable direct deposits into vaults such as Yearn, all through the Trails API and Hooks while maintaining a fully branded user experience that benefits from full chain abstraction.

Looking ahead, this integration extends even further. Katana plans Trails-powered flows for vKAT staking and governance, as well as new use cases like NFT mints, staking, and prediction markets through partners such as Foresight.

As vbAssets and vKAT governance mature, Trails will play a key role in driving liquidity into these ecosystems. Easy, cross-chain deposits increase participation, which strengthens vote incentives and emissions alignment. This creates a healthier governance loop where liquidity, incentives, and participation reinforce each other.

Making capital productive in DeFi vaults

Trails makes it simple to move liquidity into productive DeFi vaults, including those built on ERC-4626. Developers can integrate Trails with almost any ERC-4626 vault, allowing users to deposit in 1-click regardless of the token, chain, or wallet they start from.

Most integrations only require encoding static calldata and passing it to Trails for executing a smart contract function. For flows where the deposit amount must be dynamic, Trails enables developers to use a placeholder value that’s automatically resolved with the exact bridged or swapped output amount at execution. This enables users to deposit into vaults like the USDC Yearn vault on Katana with any token from any chain. Trails takes care of the bridging, swapping, and execution, so capital becomes productive without extra steps or added complexity.

These seamless flows expand the reach of vault-bridged assets by removing the biggest blocker to their adoption: fragmented entry points. When users can deposit into a vault from any chain or token, VaultBridge vaults grow deeper, which feeds more yield into Katana’s incentive budget, and DeFi becomes more aligned around productive capital rather than isolated silos.

Key benefits for users

• 1-click access to real yield from any token or wallet on any EVM chain
• Better swap rates, lower slippage, and deeper liquidity through integrated DEX routing with core apps such as Sushiswap
• A unified experience with a single interface and a single confirmation
• Future access to vKAT staking and ecosystem governance

Key benefits for developers

• Stronger liquidity flows into Katana apps through reduced drop-offs
• Full chain abstraction with complete control over branding and UX
• Native routing across any DEX for best execution
• Out-of-the-box ERC-4626 vault support
• Easy expansion into NFT mints, staking flows, governance, and more

1-click crypto: The solution for DeFi and yield opportunities

With Trails and Katana, yield opportunities become truly 1-click. Users can take any token on any EVM chain and bridge, swap, and deposit into Katana vaults almost instantly. Upcoming support for vKAT staking and governance will deepen this experience even further by giving users a simple way to influence liquidity flows and earn a share of protocol fees.

“Trails simplifies multichain liquidity by collapsing the layers that normally separate chains, tokens, and apps,” said Ignatius Widjaja, Head of Product at Katana. “With Trails integrated into Katana, users and developers gain 1-click access to cross-chain bridging, swapping, and depositing, all backed by Katana’s liquidity and real yield architecture.”

Together, Trails and Katana push DeFi toward a future where liquidity flows freely, yield is real, and the experience finally feels effortless.

Learn more and start building with Trails, visit trails.build.