The Ink Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind the Ink layer-2 network, is set to launch its native token, INK, as part of a strategy to jumpstart onchain capital markets through a liquidity-first approach.
The INK token will make its debut on a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and trading protocol built atop Aave. Distribution will begin with an airdrop targeting early users of the protocol.
According to the foundation, the launch will avoid common pitfalls such as governance manipulation or unpredictable emission schedules. INK will have a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens, with no mechanism for altering the cap through governance proposals.
In a notable departure from other Superchain members, Ink has opted to keep governance of its layer-2 network separate from the token. (The Superchain refers to a collection of layer-2 networks built using the same core infrastructure, allowing for shared security, upgrades, and tooling—akin to cities connected by a single highway system.)
The token’s first real-world use case will be within a native liquidity protocol on the Ink chain, designed to serve as a foundational DeFi building block for lending and capital allocation.
Users engaging with the protocol will be eligible for INK airdrops, though detailed distribution criteria are still forthcoming. A foundation-owned subsidiary will oversee the airdrop process and says it has developed safeguards to minimize exploitation by airdrop farmers.
Despite its ambitions, INK enters a saturated market, where even well-backed tokens with solid protocol adoption often struggle to maintain value post-launch.
Linea, Blast, Celestia, Berachain, and other prominent projects launched their layer-2 tokens with significant hype throughout 2024–25 — only to quickly face sustained sell pressure. Many critics now view these token launches less as genuine economic alignment tools and more as delayed exit liquidity plays.
INK is entering the market at a time when most tokens are in a downward trend, retail interest is muted, and capital is rotating cautiously and selectively.
Currently, Ink’s DeFi ecosystem holds just over $7 million in total value locked, with only $93 in L2 revenue generated in the past 24 hours, according to DefiLlama. These figures suggest that actual user activity on the network remains limited.
Still, by tying the token to a live product from day one — through integration with Aave governance and functionality — Ink appears to be making a deliberate attempt to avoid the pitfalls of recent underperforming launches.
