Kraken, whose founder donated $1 million in crypto to Donald Trump, intends to launch a blockchain network next year. According to Bloomberg, Kraken’s upcoming launch, called Ink, has a blockchain design that shares similarities with Coinbase’s Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 network, Base. California-based Kraken plans to become the second U.S. crypto exchange to launch its own decentralized chain with smart contract support by early 2025.
Statements from those behind Ink revealed that the chain will be another Ethereum scaling solution, commonly referred to as L2. Ink’s founder, Andrew Koller, said that Kraken’s blockchain will allow retail and institutional market players to engage in trustless financial activities on-chain.
Like Base on Ethereum, Koller and his team designed Ink to host decentralized applications such as DeFi lender Aave or Aerodrome, the largest DEX on Coinbase’s L2. Ink leverages Optimism’s developer stack, the same toolkit that powers Base.
Coinbase’s Base has become DeFi’s fifth-largest chain, amassing the highest user deposits, or total value locked (TVL), of any Ethereum layer-2 network. According to DeFiLlama, users have invested over $2.4 billion into Base since its launch in August 2023. Only Ethereum, Tron (TRX), Solana (SOL), and Binance Smart Chain hold larger TVLs.
The success achieved by Base and Binance Smart Chain offers a glimpse of how quickly a crypto exchange-backed blockchain could rise. Kraken, alongside Binance and Coinbase, is one of the largest digital asset trading platforms.
Ink’s reveal could also represent Kraken’s bullish outlook on the U.S. crypto landscape post-elections. In June, Kraken’s founder, Jesse Powell, donated $1 million, mostly in ETH, to Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump.
Trump’s odds of winning the November presidential election have surged on prediction platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
In related news, Powell’s crypto exchange is currently locked in litigation over allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A judge has advanced the SEC’s lawsuit, while Kraken denies operating as an unregistered securities exchange and has requested a jury trial.
