Swell switches to OP Stack to develop rollup, replacing earlier plan to use Polygon CDK

Liquid restaking protocol Swell said it would join Optimism’s Superchain ecosystem by launching an optimistic rollup on the OP Stack. Swell had previously planned a Layer 2 chain using Polygon’s chain development kit. 

“As part of this strategic transition, Swell will move away from the Polygon CDK but continues to believe in the aggregated ecosystem that Polygon is building,” the project noted.

As part of its collaboration with OP Labs, the project will enter the Superchain ecosystem of Layer 2 rollups alongside Coinbase’s Base, Kraken’s Ink, Zora, Mode, SNAXchain, and others. The Layer 2 is currently in development, and a test network is expected soon.

The chains within the Optimism Superchain ecosystem employ optimistic rollups on top of Ethereum to lower transaction costs for decentralized applications. This ecosystem is governed by a DAO called the Optimism Collective.

Swell’s OP chain will adopt ETH as the gas token instead of rswETH (Swell’s restaked ETH token), as in previous designs. The project will allocate a portion of sequencer revenue to the Optimism Collective, consistent with the plans of all chains in the Superchain ecosystem.

Swell’s rollup deviates from conventional Layer 2s by incorporating a restaking approach to enhance security, referred to as "proof of restake". The project intends to expand this feature within the Superchain ecosystem. “As the restaking yield layer, Swell will bring restaking yield and security to the Superchain,” it stated. 

Swell launched in 2023 as a liquid ETH staking protocol and later expanded to include liquid restaking products. In January, it introduced rswETH, a liquid restaking token that integrates with EigenLayer. 

Swell currently holds over $1.3 billion in total value locked across its products. Earlier this month, Swell released community airdrop details regarding the upcoming native governance token.