Kraken, whose founder Jesse Powell donated $1 million worth of cryptocurrency to Donald Trump, plans to launch its own blockchain network next year. The name of this new network has been determined as “Ink” and it is stated that its design is similar to Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 solution.

California-based Kraken aims to become the second US crypto exchange to launch its own decentralized chain with smart contract support by early 2025.

The team behind Ink stated that this new blockchain will be another Ethereum scaling solution. Andrew Koller, founder of Ink, emphasized that Kraken’s blockchain will allow both retail and institutional market players to carry out reliable financial transactions.

Ink is designed to host decentralized finance applications (DeFi) like Aave and Aerodrome, the largest decentralized exchange on Coinbase’s L2. Additionally, Ink provides access to the Optimism development stack that supports Base.

This new initiative by Kraken has the potential to make a significant impact in the DeFi space. Coinbase’s Base has become DeFi’s fifth-largest chain in terms of total value locking (TVL), with users investing more than $2.4 billion since the network’s launch.

Although platforms such as Ethereum, Tron, Solana and Binance Smart Chain have larger total value locking figures, it is thought that Kraken can achieve this success with Ink.

This initiative also reflects Kraken’s optimistic outlook towards the future. Predictions about how the US crypto market will shape after the elections strengthen the motivations behind this step of Kraken.

Powell’s donation to Trump suggests Kraken could potentially be a supporter of Republican policies. Trump aims to make a significant impact in this area by highlighting his policies supporting cryptocurrencies in the 2024 election campaign.

However, this new blockchain initiative by Kraken also overshadows its legal issues with the SEC. The Securities and Exchange Commission is questioning the company’s operations due to allegations leveled against Kraken.

The progress of the litigation could impact Kraken’s future strategies. The company requested a jury trial, arguing that it was not operating as an unregistered securities exchange.

Kraken’s Ink project arouses great curiosity both in the cryptocurrency world and among investors. In the future, the results of this step by Kraken and its impact on the market will be carefully monitored.

Increasing competition for cryptocurrency exchanges seems to present new opportunities for users and investors. The innovations that Kraken will introduce with Ink will show what a significant change it will create in the crypto world.