Kraken unveils new Ethereum L2 built on Optimism’s Superchain

Binance has BNB Chain, Coinbase has Base, OKX has the X Layer and now Kraken has Ink.

Kraken announced today its plans to launch its own Ethereum layer-2 network, Ink, expected to go live on mainnet in early 2025.

Ink uses Optimism’s OP Stack, and will be part of Optimism’s constellation of blockchains, dubbed the Superchain.

The OP Stack is the most widely-used rollup stack today, with about 43 live chains, according to L2Beat. Other upcoming layer-2 chains include Sony’s Soneium and Uniswap’s Unichain.

Read more: Optimism plans to unify its Superchain with an interoperability layer

Based on a press release shared with Blockworks, Kraken is opting into the Optimism Superchain and will therefore share a percentage of its sequencer revenues with Optimism.

Coinbase’s Base layer-2, for instance, shares 2.5% – 15% of its sequencer revenue with the Optimism treasury. Optimism has earned about 2566 ETH in sequencer revenues from Base since its October 2023 launch.

Andrew Koller, founder of Ink, said of the launch: “A [layer-2] is only as good as the value it brings to users, and that value is created by a thriving ecosystem of developers.” 

Read more: Kraken joins Coinbase to compete with BitGo’s wBTC

The Ink blockchain is being touted by Kraken as a DeFi-centric chain, and will enjoy one-second block times on day one of its launch, with improvements to sub-second block times to come down the road.

Ink’s testnet is set to go live in 17 days. The testnet launch will come with AMAs, live demos and contests to target developers.

Founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, Kraken is one of the oldest crypto exchanges today with about 10 million users across 180+ countries. Based on Coinmarketcap’s rankings, Kraken is the sixth largest crypto exchange today.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
• Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
• Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
• 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
• Lightspeed: All things Solana.
• The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
• Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.