OKX,
the
fourth-largest
crypto
exchange,
said
its
new
layer-2
blockchain,
called
X
Layer,
has
gone
live
on
its
public
mainnet,
a
continuation
in
the
era
of
major
crypto
companies
starting
their
own
distributed
networks.
X
Layer,
previously
known
as
X1,
makes
use
of
Polygon’s
Chain
Development
Kit
(CDK),
a
customizable
toolkit
that
lets
developers
build
their
own
chains
by
making
use
of
zero-knowledge
technology.
The
news
comes
as
other
major
cryptocurrency
exchanges
have
pursued
their
own
layer-2
networks
over
the
past
year.
In
August,
Coinbase
launched
its
“Base”
blockchain,
which
is
built
with
Optimism’s
OP
Stack.
Kraken
is
reportedly
also
interested
in
creating
its
own
layer-2
blockchain.
In
a
press
release,
OKX
said
its
developers
will
be
contributing
to
CDK’s
codebase,
and
that
X
Layer
will
connect
to
Polygon’s
wider
ecosystem
via
the
AggLayer.
AggLayer
is
a
Polygon
offering
that
aims
to
unify
liquidity
across
various
chains
spun
up
using
the
project’s
technology.
“OKX’s
50
million
users
now
have
an
easy
path
to
onboarding
to
X
Layer
and
all
the
other
chains
connected
to
the
AggLayer,”
Polygon
Labs
Chief
Executive
Officer
Mark
Boiron
said
in
the
release.
X
Layer,
which
launched
on
testnet
in
November,
will
allow
users
to
access
over
170
decentralized
applications
(dapps),
with
more
slated
to
launch
soon.
“We
envision
X
Layer
and
other
layer-2
chains
as
the
highway
infrastructure
of
the
Web3
world,
with
dApps
as
the
marketplaces
and
self-hosted
wallets
as
the
vehicles
that
take
you
there,”
OKX
Chief
Marketing
Officer
Haider
Rafique
said
in
the
press
release.