Kraken Launches Ink, an L2 Solution, Ahead of Schedule

On December 18, Kraken developers launched the mainnet of the L2 solution Ink on the Ethereum blockchain. The release was initially scheduled for the first quarter of 2025.

We’re excited to announce Ink is live on mainnet!

Months ahead of schedule, we’re officially launching as part of the Optimism Superchain. This is just the beginning of our journey to bridge the gap between users and builders in DeFi.

Let’s ink the future together ✍️ pic.twitter.com/WmOKNiMO06

— ink (@inkonchain) December 18, 2024

“Ink was launched several months ahead of schedule due to significant interest from third-party developers, which spurred infrastructure development and investment in testing,” explained Kraken.

Launch partners included the decentralized exchange Curve, stablecoin platform Frax, L2 infrastructure provider Gelato, and the LayerZero protocol.

“Ink will leverage the advancements of Ethereum and L2 solutions to move closer to the overarching goal of making DeFi more accessible and accelerating the migration of assets and activity on the blockchain,” the developers stated.

The Ink network is built on Optimism technology and will be compatible with all networks on the OP Stack.

Several of Kraken’s competitors have already launched their own L2 solutions for DeFi applications based on OP, including Base from Coinbase and Unichain from Uniswap.

Earlier on December 18, Deutsche Bank revealed plans to launch a second-layer solution on Ethereum using the ZKsync stack.