Catenaa, Sunday, June 22, 2025- Kraken’s Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, Ink Network, is set to launch its own native token, INK, through the newly formed Ink Foundation, an entity separate from the U.S.-based crypto exchange.
The Ink Network, powered by Optimism’s OP Stack and launched in October 2024, is part of the Optimism Superchain, a group of Ethereum layer-2 solutions sharing security and infrastructure. Unlike governance tokens, INK will not confer voting rights, as governance remains with the Optimism Collective.
INK will have a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens, with its initial use case focused on a liquidity protocol built on Aave, a leading decentralized finance (DeFi) platform. Early users of this Aave-powered protocol are set to receive an airdrop of INK tokens as part of the Foundation’s first distribution mechanism.
The Ink Foundation Board of Directors described INK as a token designed to support a growing DeFi ecosystem on Ink, facilitating activities such as lending and trading. They envision the token fostering community-led growth aligned with user success.
Details regarding the tokenomics and launch timeline remain undisclosed. The Ink Foundation’s role is to guide the network’s development and promote ecosystem expansion, while Kraken’s initial launch of the network established the technical foundation.
The INK token marks a significant step toward expanding DeFi capabilities on the Ink Network, building on its connection to Optimism’s broader Ethereum scaling efforts.
