Espresso network launches ESP token with 10% airdrop amid Ethereum layer-2 debate

The Espresso Network has officially transitioned to a permissionless proof-of-stake blockchain with the launch of its $ESP token, opening participation in securing the network and distributing a community airdrop representing 10% of total supply.

The transition coincides with the rollout of the $ESP token, which is used for staking, securing the network and protocol participation. The Espresso Foundation said the total supply is 3.59 billion $ESP, with 10% allocated to a fully unlocked community airdrop aimed at early ecosystem participants and users of Espresso-integrated rollups.

“There were various ways of determining who was eligible,” Espresso Systems CEO and co-founder Ben Fisch told CoinDesk in an interview. “The idea here is to get the token circulating among members of our extended community, but also to reward early participation and adoption of the Espresso network.”

The foundation said additional token supply has been allocated to contributors, investors, future ecosystem incentives and long-term network sustainability, with most allocations subject to vesting.

Espresso acts as a coordination and finality layer for rollups, which operate as independent execution environments. Fisch said the network is designed specifically to serve layer-2 blockchains rather than compete with them at the execution layer.

“Layer-2s need only one thing from a layer-1, which is finality,” Fisch said. “How well a layer-1 provides services to a layer-2 is measured in two things, how secure that blockchain and how fast it can provide finality.”

“Unlike Ethereum, or any other existing layer-1s, it is designed for layer-2s,” he added. “It doesn’t compete with L2s. It’s designed for L2s.”

Espresso currently finalizes rollup blocks in about six seconds on average, compared with Ethereum’s 12-minute-plus finality window (finalizing blocks means that they become immutable). That gap, Fisch argued, has become a structural bottleneck as applications and liquidity spread across multiple rollups rather than remaining concentrated on a single chain.

“Fast finality isn’t a nice-to-have 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 the network may eventually pivot 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, project for composability between blockchains, pushes main product live