What to know
- Optimism plans to use 50% of Superchain revenue to buy back OP tokens.
- The proposal goes to a governance vote on January 22, with buybacks expected to start in February.
- Optimism earned 5,868 ETH in Superchain revenue over the past year, sent to the governance treasury.
Optimism Foundation has shared plans to start buying back OP tokens using half of the revenue earned from its growing Superchain network. The proposal is now heading to a community vote scheduled for January 22, and if approved, the buyback program is expected to begin in February.
The announcement was shared by OP Labs CEO and Optimism co-founder Jinglan Wang in an update posted on X. In the post, Wang said the goal of the proposal is to better align the OP token with the success of the wider Optimism ecosystem, not just the core teams building the technology.
Why Optimism is proposing OP buybacks
Optimism runs the Superchain, a network of blockchains built using the OP Stack. Today, the Superchain handles around 13% of all blockchain transactions and controls more than 61% of the layer-2 fee market. Over the past year, it has become one of the most widely used scaling systems in crypto. However, until now, the OP token has not been directly connected to how well the Superchain performs. According to the Optimism team, this is something they want to change.
The new proposal suggests using 50% of the revenue earned from Superchain activity to buy OP tokens every month for the next year. These tokens would then be sent back to the Optimism treasury, where they could later be burned or used for rewards, depending on future governance decisions. The remaining 50% would be used to fund operations and continue growing the Superchain.
How much Revenue is Involved
Every blockchain built on the OP Stack contributes part of its earnings back to Optimism. Over the last 12 months, this added up to 5,868 ETH in total revenue. So far, all of this money has gone directly into a treasury controlled by Optimism governance.
With the new plan, a large part of that income would now be used to support the OP token itself. As the Superchain grows and more activity happens across its networks, the amount available for buybacks could increase over time. Wang also stressed that Optimism’s success is not only because of its internal teams. Major projects like Base, Worldcoin, Celo, Zora, and several others chose to build on the OP Stack, helping the Superchain grow into global infrastructure.
According to the Foundation, the OP token should act as a shared link between everyone building and using the Superchain. When more developers and companies choose the OP Stack, network activity increases, revenue grows, and more OP tokens can be bought back. If approved, this proposal would mark a shift in how OP is viewed. Instead of being only a governance token, OP would become more closely tied to the actual growth of the network.
OP Price Action
OP’s price showed a positive reaction after the buyback proposal was shared. Following the announcement, OP began moving up slowly, suggesting growing confidence among traders and long-term holders. Over the past 24 hours, OP is up around 0.8%, in line with a broader weekly gain of nearly 13%. Trading volumes also picked up by 11%, showing renewed interest without signs of excessive speculation. At the time of writing, OP is trading at around $0.31.
On the technical side, OP’s price is trading above its 30-day SMA ($0.291) and shows bullish divergence in key indicators. The RSI 14-day (56.72) is neutral but trending upward from oversold levels, and the MACD is a bullish crossover with a histogram at +0.0083, the highest since December 2025. But resistance at the 23.6% Fibonacci level ($0.325) could cap gains if buying momentum stalls.
What’s Next?
The governance vote is set for January 22. If the community approves the proposal, the first round of OP buybacks would begin in February. The Optimism team has also announced a public Twitter Space on January 12, where community members can ask questions directly to core contributors.
As the Superchain continues to grow, this move could play a key role in shaping how value flows back to the OP ecosystem in the years ahead.
Also Read: Zcash Crashes 17% as Entire Dev Team Resigns Amid Governance Dispute and Market Sell Off
