Optimism (OP): The Token Behind an Ethereum L2 and Its Superchain
Governance token of a network of chains sharing the OP Stack
Optimism (OP) is the governance token for ‘OP Mainnet’, an Ethereum scaling chain (L2) that processes transactions faster and cheaper, and for the ‘Superchain’, a network of chains sharing its technology. In February 2026 Base said it would leave the OP Stack, shaking the revenue model.
1. An optimistic rollup on Ethereum
Optimism is a scaling project meant to cut Ethereum’s slowness and high fees. OP Labs builds the software, and an organization called the Optimism Collective sets direction. Mainnet opened in December 2021, and OP tokens were airdropped (given away) in May 2022.
On the Crypto Nation map, OP is the city-hall tower of the Optimism district in the L2 Suburbs, because it is the token that represents the Optimism chain. Fees are paid in ether (ETH), so OP is a governance token, used for voting and funding decisions.
2. Optimistic rollups and the OP Stack
Optimism is an ‘optimistic rollup’: it batches transactions, posts the results to Ethereum, assumes they are correct and settles any challenge with a proof. In June 2024 ‘fault proofs’, which let anyone dispute a result, went live on OP Mainnet.
The OP Stack is the open-source code for building Optimism-style chains, and Base, Coinbase’s L2, ran on it for a time; and the Superchain is the group of chains using it. Sony’s Soneium, Uniswap’s Unichain, Kraken’s Ink and Worldcoin’s World Chain joined, and chains were to share part of their revenue with the Collective.
3. Where it is used, and key dates
OP gives voting rights and funds retroactive public-goods funding, which rewards useful projects after the fact. In January 2026 holders approved using half of Superchain revenue to buy OP, with purchases starting in February, described as the first direct buyback by a major Ethereum L2.
Key dates: mainnet in December 2021, the OP airdrop in May 2022, Bedrock in June 2023, fault proofs in June 2024 and the buyback approval in January 2026. In mid-February 2026 Coinbase said Base would move from the OP Stack to its own code and end revenue sharing with the Collective.
4. Things to know
The Superchain leaned heavily on one big partner. Base supplied roughly four-tenths of the Collective’s revenue to date, so its exit hurts near-term onchain revenue, as the OP Labs chief executive admitted, and the business model must evolve. Base will remain an OP Enterprise customer.
On the token side, the initial supply of about 4.3 billion is large and governance can add up to 2% a year, so critics say buybacks may be offset by new issuance. What happens to the rest of the OP that Base could have earned under its 2023 deal is unclear, and centralized sequencers (servers that order transactions) remain a risk common to L2s.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.