TL;DR
Ink is Kraken's Layer 2, built on the OP Stack as part of Optimism's Superchain, with roughly one-second blocks and sub-cent fees.
It launched mainnet in December 2024 with a DeFi focus and tight Kraken integration, including one-click deposit and withdrawal between a Kraken account and Ink.
Across bridges to Ink from 23+ chains in about 2 seconds, so you can fund Ink from anywhere, not only from a Kraken balance.
Across has never been exploited at the protocol level since 2021, with settlement secured by UMA's Optimistic Oracle and, in V4, zero-knowledge proofs.
Most Layer 2s launch hoping to attract users. Ink launched with a few million of them already sitting on the other side of a button. It's Kraken's L2, built on the OP Stack and part of Optimism's Superchain, and it exists to move Kraken's exchange users into DeFi without the friction that has kept most of them out. You get onto Ink by bridging to it, and the fastest route from any chain is Across.
What Ink Is
Ink is an optimistic rollup built on the OP Stack, the same framework behind Optimism, Base, and the rest of the Superchain. It bundles transactions off-chain and posts proofs to Ethereum for settlement, inheriting Ethereum security at a fraction of the cost. In practice that means roughly one-second block times and sub-cent transaction fees, with full EVM compatibility so existing Ethereum tooling and contracts work without modification.
Ink went live on mainnet in December 2024. It launched with permissionless fault proofs and was the first Superchain network to run multiple fault-proof challengers, with both Gelato and Kraken operating them. Most Superchain networks still run a single challenger that one party controls. Ink does not, which is the difference between trusting an operator and trusting the proof system for a chain meant to hold real DeFi capital.
Why Kraken Built It
Kraken has millions of exchange users, and most of them never make the jump to onchain DeFi because the path is intimidating. Ink collapses it. One-click deposit and withdrawal runs directly between a Kraken account and Ink, so an exchange user can move onto the chain without hand-managing the usual bridge-and-fund sequence.
The DeFi stack came with the chain rather than after it. Tydro, a lending market built on Aave's technology, already gives Ink users a native money market instead of a protocol bolted on once the chain found traction.
Across Funds Ink from Anywhere, Not Just Kraken
Kraken's one-click path is the obvious on-ramp if your funds already sit on Kraken. But a lot of capital doesn't. It's on Arbitrum, on Base, on Solana, on Ethereum mainnet. For that capital, Across is the way onto Ink.
Across bridges to Ink from 23+ chains with roughly 2-second fills on mainnet. You pick your origin chain and token, choose Ink as the destination, and confirm one transaction. A relayer fronts your funds on Ink immediately and settles the position later, so you never wait on origin-chain finality. The same path holds whether your capital starts on another Superchain L2 or on Solana's SVM.
Across has processed billions in volume since 2021 without a protocol-level exploit, with settlement secured by UMA's Optimistic Oracle and, in V4, zero-knowledge proofs through Succinct's SP1. Funding a newer chain shouldn't mean trusting a newer bridge to carry your capital there.
Ink was built to bring the next wave of users onchain. Across is how the rest of the chains get them there.