On December 18, Kraken developers launched the mainnet for the Ink Layer 2 solution on the Ethereum blockchain. Initially, the release was planned 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 strong interest from third-party developers, which accelerated infrastructure development and investment in testing,” Kraken explained.

Launch partners include 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 achieve a shared goal: making DeFi more accessible and accelerating the migration of assets and activity on the blockchain,” developers stated.

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

Several Kraken competitors have already launched their own Layer 2 solutions for DeFi applications based on OP technology, including Coinbase’s Base and Uniswap’s Unichain.

Notably, on December 18, Deutsche Bank announced plans to launch its own Layer 2 solution on Ethereum using the ZKsync stack.