Kraken looking to ‘solve’ industry challenges amid layer-2 rumors

The rumors were fueled by reports citing anonymous sources and a job posting from Kraken which highlighted that the company is “enthusiastic” about layer-2 solutions.

Crypto exchange Kraken neither confirmed nor denied rumors of the company’s plans to potentially release a layer-2 solution similar to what its competitor Coinbase did with Base network earlier this year. 

The rumors were fueled by reports citing anonymous sources and a job posting from Kraken highlighting that the organization is looking to hire a senior cryptography engineer who would be in charge of designing and implementing cryptographic protocols and “layer-2 solutions.”

Within the job post, Kraken also noted that its team has “recently embarked on exploring how more protocols and decentralized applications can be integrated” into its crypto ecosystem. The post also noted that the company is enthusiastic about layer-2 protocols.

Cointelegraph reached out to Kraken for clarity on the topic. However, the exchange did not confirm that they are working on a layer-2 network that could potentially rival Base and other layer-2 players across the crypto space. According to a spokesperson from Kraken, the company does not have anything to discuss at the moment. They said:

“We’re always looking to identify and solve for new industry challenges and opportunities. We don’t have anything further to share at this time.”

Various community members have responded to the news, with some supporting Kraken getting into layer-2 solutions and others being against the move. An X (formerly Twitter) user argued that because of scalable layer-1 networks, “we don’t need L2’s.” The community member also noted that the industry has enough layer-2 network that is “fragmenting liquidity.”

Related: Will the next crypto bull run be dominated by L1s, L2s or something else?

Earlier this year, Kraken’s competitor Coinbase released its own layer-2 solution called the Base network. On Aug. 9, Base was officially launched, opening use for end-users after a period of being on a “builders only” phase.

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