Optimism through the OP buyback plan, linking token value to Superchain revenue

Optimism’s governance mechanism has approved a proposal to link the OP token more closely with the economic performance of the Superchain, marking a significant step in how one of Ethereum’s largest layer 2 ecosystems approaches token value and revenue utilization.

The proposal was approved with 84.4% support on Optimism’s on-chain governance portal after several days of discussion among delegates and token holders.

According to the plan, the Optimism Foundation will allocate 50% of net revenue from the Superchain’s sequencers to periodically buy back OP tokens as part of a 12-month pilot program starting in February. The remaining revenue will continue to be used for ecosystem grants, funding programs, and operational costs.

This is Optimism’s first official effort to tie the demand for the OP token to activity across the entire Superchain — an expanding collection of chains using the OP Stack such as OP Mainnet, Base, Unichain, World Chain, Soneium, Ink, and many others.

Since launch, OP has primarily served as a governance token, allowing holders to participate in protocol upgrade votes and treasury allocations. The new buyback mechanism introduces another incentive: as Superchain usage increases, the amount of capital used to buy OP on the open market also rises.

According to the Optimism Foundation, sequencers within the Superchain generated approximately 5,900 ETH in revenue over the past year — a figure that could continue to grow as more chains launch and transaction volume expands.

The repurchased OP will be stored in the treasury of the Optimism Collective. The proposal does not require burning tokens or removing them from circulating supply, meaning future use cases — including staking, incentive mechanisms, or burning — will be determined by subsequent governance decisions.