Compiled by: Felix, PANews
On October 24, the crypto exchange Kraken announced plans to launch an L2 network called Ink on Ethereum in early 2025. The network will focus on DeFi, allowing token trading and lending without intermediaries. The Ink testnet will be launched later this year, allowing developers to test Ink's applications. The Ink mainnet is expected to open to retail and institutional users in the first quarter of next year.
Ink is built on the open-source, MIT-licensed OP Stack codebase of Optimism, joining the broader Ethereum ecosystem. In addition to benefiting from Ethereum's security, Ink will also be part of the OP Superchain. This unified blockchain network shares security, governance and values, and adopts a common standard codebase to help scale Ethereum.
It is worth mentioning that Andrew Koller, the founder of Ink, said in an interview that Kraken does not plan to issue its own token. In addition, Kraken has collaborated with Optimism to release a limited edition of NFTs to thank early supporters.
Currently, about 40 people in the Kraken team are developing Ink. The company has already planned events for developers, including one in Thailand in November.
After the launch, various trading platforms are rushing to follow suit
After seeing blockchain help drive Binance's revenue and user growth, various crypto trading platforms have launched their own blockchains. Binance's BNB Chain and related tokens have become one of the most popular tokens. Coinbase's foray into this field has also been successful, with a 300% quarter-on-quarter increase in trading volume in the second quarter driven by app and memecoin releases. Recently, even the decentralized exchange Uniswap has announced the launch of an L2 network.
Related reading: What makes Uniswap's L2 network Unichain different?
Although DeFi applications have existed for years, they are considered too complex for the average user. Kraken is trying to simplify the experience, making it cheaper and more intuitive to earn yields and achieve other DeFi functions. Ink founder Andrew Koller said the Ink applications will be provided through the Kraken Wallet app.
"This is a very user-friendly, Apple-like experience," he said. "Over time, our users will have these two centralized and decentralized ecosystems. We want you to feel like you're doing something familiar."
Ink is expected to launch with more than a dozen available DAPPs, such as decentralized exchanges and aggregators. Kraken will initially serve as the sequencer for Ink, earning money by organizing and managing transactions on the network, but this function will eventually be decentralized and shared by multiple parties. According to Coinbase's shareholder letter, the sequencer revenue for Coinbase's Layer2 network Base was $53 million in the second quarter.
Optimism becomes the "hot cake"
Creating one's own L2 network is not a new thing. Other L2 networks like Polygon, zkSync, Starknet and Arbitrum have all launched their own stacks, hoping that various institutions will choose their technology.
But Optimism has recently become the "hot cake". Mainstream crypto companies and even non-crypto companies have chosen to use Optimism as the blueprint for their own networks. Companies developing rollups using Optimism code include Base, Sony, Uniswap and World Network (formerly Worldcoin) backed by Sam Altman.
Optimism chain accounts for nearly half of the over 100 rollup transactions on Ethereum. There are at least 43 rollups using Optimism technology, with a total TVL of $18.1 billion. They are called the "Superchain" by the Optimism project lead, while there are only 29 projects using Arbitrum technology.
Although the surge of rollups has diversified Ethereum's liquidity, Optimism plans to launch a new token standard in 2025 to achieve interoperability between blockchains using its code.
Kraken said in a statement: "Ink will support SuperchainERC20 at launch, allowing users to easily move within the Superchain ecosystem and laying the foundation for smoother interaction between Ink and other OP Chains."
Kraken was founded in 2011, headquartered in San Francisco, and is currently expanding into new product areas and markets, and continues to consider the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO). Earlier this year, Kraken was considering a final round of financing before the IPO.
Like many crypto companies, Kraken's future may depend on whether US crypto policy will change after the upcoming US election. Last year, the US SEC accused Kraken of operating as an unregistered broker-dealer, exchange and clearing agency. In February 2023, Kraken settled separately with the US SEC over its staking business, agreeing to pay $30 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties.
