Upbit launches its own Ethereum L2 — GIWA Chain — as Optimism's first self-managed enterprise client.

South Korea&#x27;s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, has partnered with the Optimism Foundation to build GIWA Chain, a dedicated Ethereum Layer 2 running on the <a class="ticker-mention" href="/en-US/token/op">OP</a> Stack. It marks the first deployment on Optimism&#x27;s new Self-Managed enterprise tier, meaning Upbit operates its own rollup sequencer while Optimism provides institutional-grade backup: monitoring, a failover sequencer, priority patches, and technical guidance.

The distinction matters. Controlling the sequencer means Upbit decides which transactions are included — critical for a regulated exchange serving Korean and global institutional users — and captures the fee revenue those transactions generate. &quot;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,&quot; said Jing Wang, Optimism Foundation director.

Upbit claims over 13 million…