Optimism (@Optimism): The First Self-Managed OP Enterprise Chain and What It Signals

The First Self-Managed OP Enterprise Chain and What It Signals Korea's largest exchange is partnering with The Optimism Foundation on its own Layer 2. The pattern emerging across major exchanges is hard to miss. Today Upbit, operated by Dunamu, announced its planned partnership with The Optimism Foundation on GIWA Chain — a new Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack. GIWA Chain plans to be the first chain to go live on the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise. The bigger story isn't the announcement. It's what the decision signals about where exchange infrastructure is headed. The decision that's becoming routine For the world's largest exchanges, whether to own a chain has moved from technical to strategic. At scale, running on shared blockspace means giving up sequencer control, fee capture, and the ability to guarantee the SLA your regulator requires. Upbit serves 13M+ registered users and ranks #2 globally by cumulative spot trading volume from 2020 to 2024 (CoinGecko). At that size, the math stops working for renting someone else's infrastructure. Why the OP Stack, again More than 34+ Layer 2 networks run in production on the OP Stack. The ecosystem processed over 6 billion transactions in 2025. An exchange building a production chain doesn't want to be the one proving whether the underlying infrastructure works. Upbit's choice fits the pattern emerging across major exchanges: the OP Stack is the standard, because the track record is already in. Why Self-Managed OP Enterprise comes in two tiers. Fully Managed is the default. Self-Managed is for operators who can't cede sequencer control but still need institutional-grade assurance from The Optimism Foundation underneath. Under the MoU, Upbit would run the chain. The Foundation would run the safety net. Upbit keeps sovereignty. GIWA's users get resilience. That division is the point. From Dunamu's COO. "Operating our own GIWA Chain is a strategic move for Upbit. Our goal is to provide institutional and retail users with a level of performance and compliance consistent with our existing platform. The Optimism Foundation's Self-Managed tier provides a suitable framework, allowing us to maintain operational control while building on established infrastructure." — Minseok Jung, COO, Dunamu Inc. From @jinglejamOP "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. Upbit going live on OP Enterprise Self-Managed is a clear signal about where the industry is moving. It also says something about where the trust is going: an operator at Upbit's scale isn't going to build on infrastructure that hasn't already proven it can carry the weight." What this signals. Exchange chains are no longer a question of whether. They're a question of how, and on what stack. Dunamu's MoU puts it among a growing cohort of major exchanges choosing the same answer. GIWA Chain is the flag being planted for the Self-Managed tier. Others will follow. More on what this decision means, and the broader pattern it fits into: https://www.optimism.io/blog/dunamu-just-signed-an-mou-on-giwa-chain.-korea-s-largest-exchange-is-picking-a-side-on-infrastructure