Espresso Network has launched its ESP token, opening up participation in network security and distributing a community airdrop representing 10% of the total supply.
The network will eventually move to a permissionless proof-of-stake model in a few weeks, following the launch of the ESP token, used for staking, network security, and protocol staking. The Espresso Foundation said the total supply is 3.59 billion ESP, with 10% allocated to a fully unlocked community airdrop targeting early ecosystem participants and rollup users built into Espresso.
“There were several ways to determine who was eligible,” Espresso Systems CEO and co-founder Ben Fisch told CoinDesk in an interview. “The idea here is to circulate the token among members of our extended community, but also reward early participation and adoption of the Espresso network.”
The foundation said that an additional supply of tokens has been allocated to contributors, investors, future ecosystem incentives and long-term network sustainability, and that the majority of allocations are grandfathered.
Espresso acts as a coordination and finalization layer for rollups, which operate as independent execution environments. Fisch said the network is designed specifically to serve layer 2 blockchains rather than competing with them at the execution layer.
“Layer 2 only needs one thing from layer 1, which is finality,” Fisch said. “How well a layer 1 provides services to a layer 2 is measured by two things: how secure that blockchain is and how quickly it can provide finality.”
“Unlike Ethereum, or any other existing Layer 1, it is designed for Layer 2,” he added. “It doesn’t compete with L2. It’s designed for L2.”
Currently, Espresso finalizes cumulative blocks in about six seconds on average, compared to Ethereum’s 12+ minute finality window (finalizing blocks means they become immutable). Fisch argued that gap has become a structural bottleneck as requests and liquidity are spread across multiple pools rather than remaining concentrated on a single chain.
“Quick finality is not a good thing for rollups,” Fisch said. “It’s the missing piece that transforms isolated chains into a unified, composable ecosystem.”
The launch comes as the Ethereum ecosystem debates the future role of Layer 2 networks, following recent comments from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggesting that the network could eventually move away from an L2-centric roadmap as improvements to Ethereum’s base layer reduce the need for rollups as a scaling solution.
That debate has raised broader questions about whether Layer 2 networks are extensions of Ethereum or independent blockchains in their own right, and whether infrastructure designed primarily to scale Ethereum will remain relevant as the base layer becomes faster and cheaper.
As Ethereum’s long-term scaling strategy comes under renewed scrutiny, Espresso is betting that demand for application-specific rollups, particularly from institutions and consumer platforms, will continue to grow regardless of Ethereum’s roadmap.
Read more: Espresso, cross-blockchain composability project, launches main product
CORRECTION (February 12, 2026, 15:55 UTC): Updates story to say the network will transition to a proof-of-stake blockchain in the coming weeks.
