OP Token: They’re Buying It Back?!

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Right then, listen up. Those clever-clogs at Optimism – yes, the ones with all the digital doohickeys – have finally decided to spend some of their hard-earned (or, let’s be honest, clever-algorithm-earned) money on their own OP tokens. It’s a buyback, you see. A grand scheme to, as they put it, “link” the value of these tokens to the Superchain. Honestly, it sounds like someone finally pointed out that their tokens were looking a bit peaky.

  • So, they’re taking HALF the money the Superchain makes (from things called ‘sequencers’, whatever those are) and using it to buy back OP tokens. A whole year of this, starting way off in 2026. Planning ahead, are we?
  • This whole thing is meant to make the token’s price wiggle about in time with how much everyone is actually using the Superchain. Like a little digital dance.
  • The tokens they buy won’t just vanish into thin air. Oh no. They’ll be stuffed into a special treasure chest (the Optimism Collective Treasury) for later. Perhaps to be burned, perhaps to be used for… well, who knows what!

The vote? Oh, it passed. A whopping 84.4%! Apparently, most of the Optimism lot thought it was a splendid idea. Though, let’s be real, a grumpy badger would have gotten over 84% approval, given how low the token price has been.

Now, this jig begins in February 2026, and they will snap up 50% of the Superchain’s earnings each month, and return it to tokens. It’s a bit like robbing Peter to pay… Peter, isn’t it?

Linking OP to Superchain revenue – or Trying To

The plan, you see, is that half of the Superchain’s income will be used to gobble up OP tokens from the open market. They’ll probably buy them in secret, from special dealers, to avoid causing a ruckus. Very hush-hush. Apparently.

Last year, the Superchain made a tidy sum of 5,868 ETH. Which, if you convert it to funny money, is about $8 million. Enough to buy a rather large pile of biscuits, I should think.

These rescued tokens will then be deposited into the Optimism Collective Treasury. What they’ll do with them, nobody seems entirely sure. Perhaps use them to build a giant, digital fortress? Perhaps just stare at them. The possibilities are truly… limited.

And they’ve even thought about things going wrong. There are “safeguards”, like automatic pauses in the scheme, in case the Superchain suddenly decides it doesn’t want to earn any money anymore. How very considerate.

A Response to Grumbling

This whole business is supposed to silence the grumbles of regular token-holders who noticed the network was growing like a weed, but their tokens weren’t getting any healthier. A perfectly reasonable complaint, one might add.

A large and ever-increasing number of digital shenanigans are going on within the Superchain (Base, Unichain, and a whole host of others). The proponents of this scheme claim it’ll bring everyone together – builders, users, and investors – in a harmonious, money-making embrace. Optimistic, aren’t they?

“Governance approval of the buyback proposal marks an exciting first step in expanding the role of the OP token. Optimism’s OP Stack is becoming the settlement layer for the next generation of financial systems, and this program will help align the OP token’s value with the success of the Superchain ecosystem.” 

– Bobby Dresser, Optimism Foundation executive director

Now, the token’s been looking rather pale lately, still hovering over 90% below its best days. But they insist this isn’t a desperate attempt to inflate the price. It’s “structural,” see? “Sustainable.” A very sensible plan, they say. Although, one can’t help suspecting a tiny bit of wishful thinking.

The Optimism folk will have a look at how things are going before deciding whether to keep the scheme going, tweak it, or just quietly bury it and pretend it never happened.

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2026-01-29 07:58