Kraken to launch blockchain network in 2025

Kraken, whose founder donated $1 million in crypto to Donald Trump, intends to launch a blockchain network next year.

Kraken’s upcoming launch is dubbed Ink, and its blockchain design shares similarities with Coinbase’s Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 network, Base, according to Bloomberg. 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.

Remarks from the minds behind Ink disclosed that the chain will be another Ethereum scaling solution, commonly called L2s. Ink founder Andrew Koller said 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 taps Optimism’s developer stack, the same toolkit powering Base.

Coinbase’s Base has become DeFi’s fifth-largest chain, amassing the most user deposits, or total value locked of any Ethereum layer-2 network.  According to DeFiLlama, users have invested over $2.4 billion on Base since its launch in August 2023. Only Ethereum, Tron (TRX), Solana (SOL), and Binance Smart Chain held larger TVLs.

The success achieved by Base and Binance Smart Chain may offer a glimpse of how high a crypto exchange-backed blockchain could climb in a short time. 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 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 elections have whipsawed upwards across prediction platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.

In related news, Powell’s crypto exchange was locked in litigation over allegations levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission. A judge ruled to advance the SEC’s lawsuit, while the company denied operating as an unregistered securities exchange and requested a jury trial.