The Ink Foundation, a nonprofit organization behind Kraken-backed Ethereum Layer 2 network Ink, has announced plans to launch a native token called $INK. The token will have a fixed total supply capped at 1 billion and will be distributed through an airdrop to early adopters and DeFi users. $INK is designed to power protocol incentives and liquidity protocols, with its first use case integrated with Aave for trading and lending activities. Ink is built on the Optimism stack and aims to establish itself as a DeFi hub within the Superchain ecosystem, offering sub-penny gas fees and currently holding $74 million in stablecoin total value locked (TVL). Activity on the Ink Layer 2 network has increased ahead of the token rollout, signaling growing user engagement. Kraken is also preparing for its own IPO, marking Ink as the first company to IPO with a token attached to one of its products.