The Ink Foundation is announcing plans to launch $INK: a token designed to power the future of onchain capital markets. Here’s everything you need to know 🧵.

9/ Read the full announcement:

8/ Stay in the loop:.🔗 📡 @inkfndhq. The onchain capital stack is taking shape. Don’t blink.

7/ This marks a strategic leap forward for Ink: from core infrastructure → to app-layer liquidity → to real, open, onchain capital markets.

6/ VRTX holders will also get boosted access to future $INK incentive programs. Active community members and real users will be recognized. Airdrop details & mechanics will follow.

5/ The $VRTX token will be sunset. VRTX holders won’t be left behind, they’ll get an airdrop of $INK, with 1% of total supply allocated to the Vertex community. Snapshot: 1400 UTC, July 8. Treasury and non-vested tokens excluded & burned.

4/ This brings Vertex’s synchronous orderbook engine and perpetuals tech directly into Ink’s DeFi stack. More liquidity, more products, more depth.

3/ As part of the transition, Vertex will sunset its current EVM deployments. A new version of the DEX will launch exclusively on the Ink Layer-2, purpose-built for speed, capital efficiency, and onchain composability.

2/ @vertex_protocol is known for its high-performance decentralized exchange, advanced trading architecture, and an active community of traders and builders. Now, Vertex’s tech and team will go all-in on Ink.

🚨 Big news: Vertex Protocol is joining the Ink Foundation to build the next generation of DeFi primitives on the Ink Layer-2. A major step forward for onchain capital markets 🧵.

10/ Read the full announcement:

9/ Official updates on $INK will only come from:.🌐 📣 @inkfndhq.

8/ Ink isn’t just another L2. It’s the foundation for a full-stack DeFi ecosystem built to coordinate capital onchain, at scale.

7/ More details on eligibility and future phases will be shared soon. Stay tuned 👀.

6/ To jumpstart usage and decentralize ownership, an airdrop will reward early participants of the liquidity protocol. Sybil resistance will be taken seriously, no mercenary farming here. Fair launch. Real users.

5/ The first $INK-powered primitive will be a liquidity protocol powered by @aave, a foundational building block for Ink’s onchain capital stack. Borrow and lend, all natively integrated into Ink.

4/ Importantly, $INK does not govern the Ink L2. The governance of the chain remains under the Optimism Superchain. $INK is for the user and application layer.

3/ The total supply of $INK will be permanently capped at 1 billion tokens. No inflation. No future minting via governance. Hard capped means hard capped.

2/ $INK is the native token of the Ink ecosystem, an Ethereum L2 built on the @Optimism Superchain. It’s designed to align users, primitives, and protocols across the Ink ecosystem.