Ink, Kraken's Ethereum layer 2, has a confirmed INK token with a permanent cap of 1 billion, but no launch date. Trackers expected the token generation event (TGE), the day a token first trades, between July and September 2026. That window has closed, and we found no date announced as of October 12.
Correction, October 7, 2026 The earlier version of this page dated the token's confirmation to October 2025. The Ink Foundation announced INK on June 17, 2025, and October 2025 is when Tydro launched. It also called Nado's Season 1 points live, but Season 2 began on May 21, 2026, and it said Kraken Pro points feed INK, which Kraken's own pages do not say.
Where it stands
The Ink Foundation announced INK on June 17, 2025. It set a permanent cap of 1 billion tokens, and the cap cannot change through governance. INK has no role in running the chain. It exists to steer liquidity toward Ink applications such as lending and trading.
The first planned distribution was an airdrop to users of an Aave-powered liquidity protocol. That protocol is Tydro, a white-label Aave v3 market that launched on October 15, 2025.
Kraken said on July 24, 2025 that INK will be airdropped to active Kraken clients and ecosystem participants through Kraken Drops. It promised more detail as milestones were reached. No snapshot, formula or date has followed.
Cap of 1 billion, no governance role.
Airdrop to active Kraken clients and ecosystem users.
White-label Aave v3 on Ink.
Accrual counted from April 6.
Trackers expected July to September 2026.
What counts toward INK, and what does not
Three tracks are tied to the distribution, and the evidence behind each differs.
| Track | What the source says | What is still missing |
|---|---|---|
| Kraken Pro trading | Ink Points Season 1 went live on April 13, 2026, counting activity from April 6. Kraken's fine print says the points are not redeemable. | Any Kraken statement that links points to INK. |
| Tydro lending | An Ink representative said on launch day that Tydro users accumulate points that represent claims on the first airdrop. | The points-to-INK rate. |
| Nado perps | Nado said in January that points will later determine INK allocations. Season 2 began on May 21, 2026. | The conversion formula, which Airdrops.io says Nado will publish before the TGE. |
Kraken's points work like a loyalty ladder. Points come from trading, holding assets, staking and other activity on Kraken Pro, and Kraken adds them every Monday for the previous week. Seasonal points set a level at the end of each season, the top level needs an invitation, and lifetime totals never reset. The launch post says Ink Points are not available in the United Kingdom.
Tydro launched with markets for wETH, kBTC (Kraken's wrapped bitcoin) and the stablecoins USDG, USDT0 and GHO. The Block reported that it keeps Aave's lending engine and adds an INK-based incentive structure built for Ink-native capital. Nado is an orderbook exchange on Ink. Its points come from trading, from deposits in its NLP liquidity vault and from referrals, and the weekly pool scales with trading volume.
The Kraken Pro track is the weakest of the three. Third-party guides present Ink Points as the main path to INK. Kraken's launch post and support page never mention the token, and the launch post says Kraken cannot yet say what the rewards are.
Tydro and Nado stand on firmer ground because each project tied its own points to INK in its own words. Both still need real capital. Tydro deposits carry smart contract risk. Nado trading carries liquidation risk on a young venue, and the points have no published value.
Risks and open questions
The reported launch window has passed without an announcement. Neither the Ink Foundation nor Kraken has said why, and we do not know. Ink's homepage, checked on October 12, carries no INK claim and no date.
A confirmed token with no date is standard phishing bait. Until a claim page exists on an official Ink or Kraken domain, every INK checker and calculator is a guess. Our scam checklist covers the pattern, and the farming guide covers position sizing. For another confirmed but undated token with a huge user base behind it, see our Base entry.
What to watch:
- A TGE date, tokenomics post or snapshot from the Ink Foundation or Kraken Drops.
- Nado's published points-to-INK rate, which it is expected to release before the TGE.
- Any Kraken statement that connects Ink Points to INK.
How to position yourself
- Trade on Kraken Pro only if you already use it. Ink Points have accrued since April 6, 2026, but Kraken has not tied them to INK, so treat this as the least certain track.
- Use Tydro, the Aave v3 based lending market on Ink, with assets you would deploy anyway (wETH, kBTC, stablecoins). An Ink representative said Tydro users accumulate points that represent claims on the first airdrop.
- Trade perps on Nado only if you already trade them. Season 2 points have run since May 21, 2026, and Nado has said points will later determine INK allocations.
- Ignore any site offering an INK claim. No claim exists and no date is official. Bookmark inkonchain.com and wait for an announcement there.
Reality check None of these steps guarantee an allocation. Teams change criteria late, add anti-sybil filters, and sometimes never ship a token. Only spend time and gas you are fine writing off.
