Charter Foundation Established by Ink Foundation, GSR, and Peers to Lower Token Launch Expenses

A collective of cryptocurrency organizations has established the Charter Foundation to introduce a fresh framework aimed at helping founders decrease token deployment expenses.

This initiative arrives following a downturn in token issuances and token-based venture transactions, which continue to encounter stricter criteria as numerous digital asset investors pivot toward equity models, as reported recently by The Block. John Wu, legal counsel at Ink Foundation and the primary architect behind the Charter Foundation, explained to The Block that the timing is intended to prepare for the upcoming market cycle.

“Crypto markets are cyclical, and the best time to build for the next wave of demand is often before it arrives,” Wu stated. “Quieter markets give teams the space to build durable infrastructure that’s ready when activity returns.”

The Charter Foundation was created by the team responsible for the Ink Foundation, which develops the Ink Ethereum Layer 2 platform. Ink was originally rolled out by the digital asset exchange Kraken, though an Ink Foundation representative clarified to The Block that the Charter Foundation maintains no affiliation with Kraken.

Charter collaborators include digital asset market maker GSR, legal practices Carey Olsen, Renno & Co, Cooley, and Fenwick, alongside security audit firms ChainSecurity and Zellic. The alliance has engineered a collective legal model designed to make token debut setups more affordable and simpler to implement.

How Charter Foundation works

The Charter Foundation noted that token debuts historically demanded that teams establish three distinct entities, comprising a labs corporation, a Cayman Islands foundation, and a British Virgin Islands issuing subsidiary.

Typically, every project has had to construct this architecture from the ground up. Taking independent director fees into account, these preparations can exceed $100,000 prior to an initial token generation event, according to the Charter Foundation.

“The three-entity launch structure is well understood, however, every project needs to rebuild it from scratch,” Chris Duncan, partner at Carey Olsen and leader of its fintech and digital assets group, mentioned in a public remark. “Charter seeks to standardise the framework while preserving what matters: clean separation, genuine independence, and a defined path forward.”

For each individual project, the Charter Foundation establishes a specialized Cayman Islands exempted company to serve as the launch vehicle. While the initiative operates under Charter, this entity remains overseen by the Charter Foundation, whose governing board features Glenn Kennedy and Petri Basson.

Kennedy serves as the managing director of Leeward Management, bringing more than twenty years of expertise in offshore governance, regulatory law, and corporate organization. Basson established Hash Directors, leads the Blockchain Association of the Cayman Islands, and previously managed the digital asset division at KPMG Cayman.

Following a successful debut, the Cayman enterprise transitions into an autonomous foundation and detaches from Charter, meaning initiatives do not maintain a long-term reliance on Charter, the foundation explained.

“Founders come to us to build, and instead they lose time, money, and mindshare assembling and operating offshore structures, which takes them away from what they should be doing, which is building better product,” Toufic Adlouni, co-founder of Renno & Co. and founding partner of Charter, shared in a statement. “Charter takes that entire workstream off their plate, so builders can concentrate on building rather than corporate bureaucracy.”

Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/ecosystems/2026-09-09-ink-foundation-gsr-crypto-charter-foundation-token-launch-costs-414023.