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

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 .

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

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.