Kraken has raised $42 million in OP Tokens to build its Layer-2 network brilliantly.
Kraken is building a new Layer-2 network with 25M OP tokens (currently valued at ~$42.5M) using Optimism's OP Stack framework Optimism Foundation, Inc. Kraken is tying up with other major players including 5M OP for engineering and 20M OP as Coinbase, Sony and Uniswap in Optimistic “Superchain” Ecosystem Agreement Completed in 2018 At the beginning of 2024, when tokens will be around $100 million.
In the newly announced contract, Optimism Foundation gave Kraken 25 million OP tokens to build on its blockchain framework. There are currently around $42.5 million worth of tokens in circulation in 2018. They were part of a deal that ended in early 2024 when their value was close to $100 million.
The partnership comes after Kraken announced plans to launch a new layer-2 network, Inc., built on the Optimum OP Stack framework. The structure of the deal includes two main parts: 5 million OP tokens dedicated to engineering efforts and 20 million tokens tied to the achievements of the marketing phase.
Ryan Wyatt, chief development officer at the Optimism Foundation, explained the reasoning behind token distribution on social media. “The grant includes 5M OP to fund color engineering efforts, and 20M to push payments to the community for massive marketing events,” Wyatt posted on X .
Like Base and other T1 opportunities, Ink received a base grant. We will continue to share this publicly as a key!
25M OP for this deal, 5M OP to fund Inc's engineering efforts, 20M for massive txn milestones to deliver payments to the crowd and to do so…
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) October 29, 2024
According to Inc. founder Andrew Koller, the size of the offering is in line with similar deals with other Superchain participants. “The first person to come up with this number was really optimistic, and it was very consistent with what other Superchain participants were getting,” Kohler said in an interview.
The token allocation will be distributed to Kraken with help over time. In the year During the January-February 2024 settlement, the OP token traded at around $3.99, reaching a high of $4.06 on February 20. The current trading price hovers around $1.70.
Kraken's entry into the Superchain ecosystem follows the pattern of major tech companies and crypto platforms building on Optisism technology. Coinbase launched its Base Layer-2 network in August 2023, while electronics giant Sony unveiled plans for Sonium and decentralized exchange Uniswap unveiled its upcoming Unichain.
The gift structure for the new Superchain participants differs from previous arrangements. Coinbase's Base, as one of the first participants, confirmed terms that would allow it to earn up to 2.75% of the OP token supply over six years. This could reach up to 118 million OP tokens based on the current total supply of 4.3 billion.
For more recent additions like Kraken Color, the focus has shifted to activity-based incentives. “It's like a time lock thing. And after them [Base]I think all of the superchain participants are really driving around the movement,” Koller explained.
A milestone-based structure links token releases to monthly transaction volumes. Following the initial distribution, Koller confirmed that various tokens will be unlocked when certain trading targets are met.
A paid partnership between layer-2 projects and large companies is a priority in the blockchain industry. In the year In 2022, Polygon gave Starbucks a $4 million grant to develop an NFT-based loyalty program, though that project ended after 18 months.
Optimism Foundation maintains transparency about these token allocations. Public documents show around 480 million OP tokens for “partner fund + seed fund + unallocated”, Wyatt promises transparency moving forward.
Kraken's layer-2 network aims to serve as a general-purpose blockchain similar to Coinbase's Base. The exchange chose Superchain to balance interoperability goals with Ethereum's security benefits as a layer-1 blockchain.
Base's success likely influenced Kraken's decision to join the Superchain ecosystem. As of October 29, 2024, Base has accumulated $2.7 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), making it the largest Ethereum layer-2 in this scale, according to Defilama data.
The deal represents just under $3,000 per month in addition to basic deployment costs. White emphasized Kraken's broader commitment:
“Contributes to protocol engineering and development of the OP Stack, for functionality, Superchain ERC-20 standards, and broader ecosystem goals.”
Optimism Foundation continues to invest in expanding the developer ecosystem, Wyatt said, “The group will never stop investing in developers.
