South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, has partnered with the Optimism Foundation to develop and launch a new Ethereum Layer 2 network called GIWA Chain. The announcement, made on May 4, 2026, marks a significant milestone in the evolution of centralized exchange infrastructure.
GIWA Chain is built using the OP Stack, a modular framework that has already powered over three dozen chains, including those run by Coinbase (Base), Kraken (Ink), and Uniswap (Unichain). Notably, GIWA Chain will be the first deployment under the "Self-Managed" tier of OP Enterprise. This tier allows Upbit to maintain full operational control over the chain's sequencer—the core component that orders and processes transactions before sending them to Ethereum. The Optimism Foundation will provide technical support, including monitoring, a failover sequencer, priority patches, and guidance.
"What we hear consistently from the largest exchanges and institutional operators is that they want to own the chain their users transact on, not rent it," said Jing Wang, Optimism Foundation director. The Self-Managed model is designed for regulated entities that cannot cede operational control over transaction ordering and revenue generation.
Upbit, operated by Dunamu Inc., serves over 13 million registered users and has ranked as high as No. 2 globally by cumulative spot trading volume between 2020 and 2024, according to CoinGecko data. The exchange signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Optimism Foundation to ensure institutional-grade chain resilience. "Taking on the full weight of chain resilience alone, running the single instance of sequencer infrastructure that millions of users depend on, is a burden few single-operator chains can credibly sustain," Optimism noted in its blog.
GIWA Chain is currently live on testnet and has processed nearly 100 million experimental transactions. The mainnet launch is expected in the coming months of 2026, following the completion of security audits and final integration phases with OP Labs. The new Layer 2 is expected to facilitate more complex on-chain financial services and may integrate with stablecoins linked to the Korean won.
