Key Highlights
- Optimism Foundation plans to use 50% of Superchain revenue to buy OP tokens.
- The Superchain handles 13% of crypto transactions and controls 61.4% of the layer two fee market.
- A governance vote is scheduled for January 22, and if approved, monthly token buybacks will start in February.
Optimism Foundation has proposed using half of the Superchain’s revenue to buy OP tokens. The plan was announced as the Superchain, a network of layer two chains built on the OP Stack, which grew quickly. The Superchain now includes Base, Unichain, Ink, World Chain, Soneium, and OP Mainnet.
According to a blog post, the proposal aims to make the OP token more connected to how the network grows while giving the foundation more ways to manage revenue.
The Superchain has become a major player in blockchain activity. It handles 13% of all blockchain transactions globally and controls 61.4% of the layer two fee market. Each chain in the network returns part of its revenue to Optimism, which adds to a growing pool of funds.
How the token buyback works
In the last year, Optimism collected 5,868 ETH in revenue, which so far has all gone entirely into a treasury managed by OP token holders. If the proposal is approved, 50% of the future revenue will be used to buy OP tokens every month for a year. All tokens bought will go back into the treasury. This is meant to tie the token’s value to how much the Superchain is used.
In the post, Optimism said that OP could take on more roles in the future, including securing shared infrastructure, supporting governance over protocol functions, and coordinating sequencer rotation. All of these decisions will stay under token holder control, maintaining governance oversight. The foundation also plans to manage the remaining ETH from Superchain revenue alongside existing staking programs to support network growth.
The governance vote for the proposal is set for January 22, and if approved, the buyback program will begin in February.
Optimism founder Jinglan Wang highlighted the reasoning behind the change in a recent post on X, stating, “The OP token has historically had no tie to the performance of the Superchain, and we’d like to change that. OP should be an incentive alignment mechanism to unify all of us who are working towards the shared goal of innovating on the OP Stack and accelerating Superchain growth.”
Wang added that the Superchain’s success is a team effort. He added, “Foundation and Labs are not solely responsible for this success. Legends like Base, Unichain, Inkonchain, Worldcoin, Celo, build_on_bob, zora, Modenetwork and Soneium chose the OP Stack and their growth demanded that we scale the infrastructure to support them.”
Why this proposal matters
This proposal links the OP token to the growth of Superchain, which could give it real value tied to the network’s activity. If approved, monthly buybacks will reward the ecosystem as the Superchain expands, which would create a strong incentive for developers and projects to build on the OP Stack.
Furthermore, Wang explained that the token should unify all participants, from internal teams to external builders. By aligning the token with network performance and supporting governance, the proposal aims to ensure that growth and rewards are shared fairly across everyone involved in the ecosystem.
An X space with Optimism leadership is scheduled for January 12 to answer questions about the proposal.
Also Read: Owlto Finance Launches Native $OWL Token for Cross-Chain Growth
