Optimism Opens Voting for the $Millions Buyback Program of OP Tokens

The Optimism community has opened a vote on a transformative proposal designed to connect the economic value of the OP token with the performance of the Superchain. The voting process began on Thursday and will run until January 28 at 14:00 ET (19:00 UTC), giving token holders limited time to make this strategic decision.

The proposal submitted by the Optimism Foundation targets fundamental changes in the role of OP. Instead of merely functioning as a traditional governance token, this token will gain a direct revenue mechanism through a buyback program supported by Superchain revenue streams.

Significant Changes to the OP Economic Model

If the vote approves this proposal, half of the total ETH revenue generated by the Superchain sequencer will be allocated for periodic OP buybacks over the first 12 months of implementation. This move marks a significant evolution for the Optimism ecosystem, positioning OP as a token increasingly connected to network health and growth.

The Foundation states that every transaction across the entire chain within the Superchain will expand the revenue base from which the buyback program operates. This strategy creates what developers call “structural demand” for OP—demand that grows organically as the ecosystem expands.

Currently, the price of OP is at $0.23 per token, reflecting market sentiment toward this proposal. The token will become a more directly profitable asset from network activity growth.

Superchain Generates Significant Revenue for the Buyback Program

Superchain represents an innovative architecture—a collection of layer-2 blockchains sharing technical infrastructure and a unified governance framework. This ecosystem includes OP Mainnet, Base (built by Coinbase), Unichain, World Chain, Soneium, and Ink, each contributing to a shared revenue pool.

In the past 12 months, Superchain has accumulated 5,868 ETH from sequencer revenue sources. With the current ETH price at $2.31K, this is equivalent to approximately $13.5 million during that period. As more applications and chains join the ecosystem, projections indicate the revenue base will continue to grow exponentially.

Based on last year’s achievements, allocating 50% of the revenue stream for buyback would generate around 2,700 ETH per 12-month cycle. At current ETH values, this equates to approximately $6.24 million annually dedicated exclusively to buyback OP tokens on the open market.

How the Buyback Mechanism Works and Future Roadmap

The buyback mechanism will be executed through monthly ETH-to-OP conversions. The Foundation has designed this process with fixed parameters that minimize room for human discretion—conversions will occur within predefined windows without considering short-term price fluctuations.

Over time, Optimism plans to automate this entire process via on-chain smart contracts, removing the need for intermediary involvement from the Foundation. The mid-term plan includes launching a public dashboard that provides full transparency regarding conversion prices, buyback volume, and treasury balances.

Purchased OP tokens will be stored in a collectively managed treasury governed by the community, along with the remaining ETH balance. The proposal outlines several future use scenarios for this growing treasury: from token burning to reduce supply, funding ecosystem initiatives, to distributing to validators when full interoperability features and sequencer customization are launched near 2026.

With the vote ongoing, the Optimism community will decide whether the OP token enters a new era as an asset fundamentally linked to the health of the Superchain economy, rather than just a governance instrument.