op

📅 January 29
Holders of the OP token approved redirecting 50% of the protocol's actual revenue to repurchase the token itself on the market. This isn't about incentives, subsidies, or grants, but rather something that until now was almost taboo on Ethereum: using the money generated by the network to defend the token's price.

📖The proposal was launched by the Optimism Foundation earlier this month as part of a plan to align the OP token with the Superchain, the largest Layer 2 network built on its technology, where chains like Base, OP Mainnet, Unichain, Soneium, and Worldchain operate.
The vote closed on Wednesday with 84% support from approximately 450 voters, including representatives from seven chains and five applications within the ecosystem.
The central argument: Over the past year, the Superchain generated around 5,868 ETH, equivalent to more than $17.5 million in real revenue. That ETH, instead of being locked in treasury, will begin to be converted into OP through OTC repurchases starting in February. These tokens will then be transferred to a collective treasury along with the remaining ETH from the sequencer.
The mechanism will initially operate OTC for about six months before fully migrating to onchain execution. The conversion of the ETH generated in January will occur between T+25 and T+35 starting February 1st, and will be repeated monthly.
This move places Optimism alongside projects like Hyperliquid and Pump, which have already been using protocol revenues to strengthen their tokens, but with one key difference: Optimism is the first major Ethereum Layer 2 token to do so, while Arbitrum and Polygon have avoided this approach.
However, not everyone agreed. The research firm GFXlabs criticized the plan, arguing that buybacks could be “financially self-destructive” if combined with token issuances and that the process would be difficult to audit. Others proposed alternatives, such as using those funds to strengthen liquidity for OP loans.

Topic Opinion:
This is one of the most important decisions a Layer 2 protocol has made since they began competing for users and liquidity. For years, governance tokens were disconnected from the protocol's actual revenue, living off issuance and expectations. Optimism is trying to close that gap.
💬 Do you think buybacks are the right way to add value to a token… or should those revenues be used to grow the ecosystem?

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