The Ink Foundation, an L2 blockchain from Kraken, is set to launch INK, a new token project. INK will power the firm’s DeFi ecosystem, providing governance roles and building on-chain capital markets.

Developers announced that a liquidity protocol will be INK’s first use case, serving as a building block for a fuller DeFi stack. Users will only be eligible for the first airdrop if they participate in this protocol.

INK Token Will Launch Soon

Ink, an L2 blockchain that Kraken launched last December, has been growing for the last few months.

Kraken, a major centralized exchange in the US, began teasing an IPO or token launch a month ago, but it may have been referring to this asset. Ink officially announced a token launch today via a lighthearted social media post:

Obviously, Ink also provided more serious and useful information for its new TGE. The firm called INK the blockchain’s native ecosystem token, clarifying that it won’t have a role in L2 governance.

To be clear, INK will govern the firm’s DeFi ecosystem, but the chain’s governance remains under the Optimism Superchain.

INK will have a hard cap of 1 billion tokens, preventing future inflation and further divorcing it from potential governance roles.

Developers have already described their first use case, serving as the lynchpin in a new liquidity protocol powered by AAVE. The protocol will allow users to borrow and lend in INK’s ecosystem, helping create future applications:

“This will provide a new critical building block in Ink’s DeFi stack, governed and incentivized through the INK token. By supporting the liquidity protocol, the Ink Foundation hopes to create a platform for users and developers onchain to innovate with new applications and functionalities built on concentrated liquidity and the cornerstone DeFi functionality enabled by Aave’s technology,” developers claimed.

This liquidity protocol will also play a vital role in the INK token’s future airdrop. To prevent airdrop farming, establish sybil deterrence, and generally promote fair tokenomics, users will only be eligible if they participate in this protocol.

This only refers to the first airdrop, but the firm plans to launch more in the future.

Ultimately, the INK token announcement hasn’t made a huge splash in the community yet, but its fans seem very dedicated. This project may be worth remembering, assuming it continues picking up traction.