Activity on Kraken's Ink Layer 2 rises ahead of token rollout

By Vishal Chawla • Edited by Timmy Shen
Ecosystems•June 23, 2025, 2:48AM EDT
UPDATED: July 21, 2025, 1:15AM EDT
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Activity on Kraken's Ink Layer 2 rises ahead of token rollout

Quick Take

  • The Ink Layer 2 blockchain has seen a rise in usage ahead of a token launch.
  • The amount of daily transactions surpassed 500,000; active contracts peaked at 6,000 on June 18.
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The Ink blockchain, developed by Kraken as a Layer 2 on Optimism's Superchain, has seen a surge in activity ahead of a planned token rollout.

Last week, the Ink Foundation announced the INK token with a fixed supply of 1 billion, along with a community airdrop structured through a liquidity pool on Aave. 

This followed a sharp rise in activity, with daily transactions surpassing 500,000 and active contracts nearly doubling since May to a peak of 6,000 on June 18, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard.

However, its total value locked remains below $8 million, which indicates room for growth in capital on the blockchain.

Ink launched its mainnet in December 2024, ahead of its initially scheduled launch in the first quarter of 2025.

The blockchain is fully compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) applications, which allows developers to deploy existing Ethereum-based apps at lower costs and with faster transactions.
 
The network is part of Optimism's Superchain ecosystem, along with Base and the Layer 2s by Sony, Uniswap, and World, among others.

Its upcoming token "will not play a role" in any of the governance decisions for the Ink Layer-2, the foundation said. Instead, it will primarily be used for liquidity aggregation and to incentivize the use of the network's applications.

The move could help the Kraken-incubated Ink challenge Base, the L2 launched by rival U.S.-based exchange Coinbase.