The Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain is launching a local token to assist DeFi on Ink Chain, simply seven months after its launch.
Kraken, the second-largest centralized change by quantity in america, launched Ink, its Ethereum Layer 2 community, in December 2024. Lower than seven months later, the Ink Basis has introduced the upcoming launch of its INK token.
The inspiration stated it “envisions a future the place INK powers a strong DeFi ecosystem ruled by its customers and aligned with their success.” It additionally clarified that the INK token won’t play a task in governance of the chain, however that the INK provide is “completely capped and never topic to vary.”
INK’s first use case is to bolster liquidity for the chain’s DeFi ecosystem, with the token anticipated to play a pivotal function in a liquidity protocol powered by Aave, the most important lending protocol in DeFi.
Tokenomics will not be but public, however the publish clarified that there shall be an airdrop of INK for customers of the liquidity protocol. Nevertheless, it’s unclear if different DeFi actions on the chain shall be eligible for the INK airdrop. The inspiration additionally said that the token distribution shall be “undertaken by a completely owned subsidiary of the Ink Basis” versus the muse itself.
Ink, which was initially introduced in October 2024, launched its mainnet on December 16, 2024 and racked up greater than 1 million transactions within the first 24 hours.
Nevertheless, transaction quantity has not correlated to total liquidity on the chain, which maintains a complete worth locked (TVL) of simply $7 million. The metric reached an all-time excessive in Might, reaching $8.9 million.
Whereas the chain is in its early levels, its TVL is dwarfed by rivals corresponding to Coinbase’s Layer 2, Base, which boasts a TVL of $3.7 billion, and Mantle, a Layer 2 with ties to Bybit, which holds $210 million in DeFi TVL.
