Original Title: "Will 540 Million Tokens Be Confiscated? OP Governance Vote in Internal Conflict"
Original Author: Ma He, Foresight News
In early August, the Optimism Foundation officially submitted a proposal in the governance forum to reallocate the remaining 546.9 million OP tokens from the user airdrop distribution to a "Strategic Ecosystem Fund". This proposal needs to be approved by vote as it may significantly impact token holders' expectations for future airdrops. Voting began on August 14, Beijing time, and will end at 12:07 on August 20.
As of the latest on-chain data, approximately 9.105 million OP tokens support the proposal, while about 4.258 million OP tokens oppose it. The quorum requirement is approximately 16.54 million OP tokens, and there is still a significant gap to meet this threshold. The voting results have not yet been finalized, and community negotiations are ongoing.
The initial total supply of OP was approximately 4.295 billion tokens, of which 19% (about 816 million) was explicitly reserved for user airdrops. Although this arrangement is not a formal legal obligation, the Optimism team has repeatedly confirmed it in public communications over the years, including mentioning about 550 million tokens available for future airdrops during the Airdrop 5 distribution in October 2024.
The actual execution shows that five rounds of airdrops were completed between 2022 and 2024, distributing a total of approximately 269.1 million OP tokens, accounting for about 33% of the reserved total. The first round had the highest proportion, while the standards for subsequent rounds were continuously adjusted, shifting from early usage and gas consumption to delegated governance, OP mainnet activity, NFT creators, and Superchain activities.
In the fourth year (from May 2025 to April 2026), there will be no new airdrops, and the official focus will shift to "targeted growth projects with measurable retention and revenue outcomes."
On-chain data also shows that Optimism has not repurchased OP tokens as originally planned since May. After completing the monthly community buybacks in March and April, the official unilaterally halted the subsequent buyback plans. In March, the official spent 367.905 ETH to repurchase 6,951,453 OP tokens, and in April, it spent 50.16 ETH to repurchase 925,654 OP tokens. As of now, the total number of OP tokens repurchased is 9,451,924, valued at approximately $756,200 based on the latest price of $0.08.
The foundation stated that it will reassess after the 12-month period and does not commit to a long-term continuation.
Meanwhile, the overall investment scale of OP in the fourth year is expected to decrease by about 35% compared to the third year. The new circulation of the governance fund has decreased by 53% year-on-year, Retro Funding (a public product funding mechanism that rewards based on actual contributions) expenditures have decreased by 30%, and airdrops have been eliminated. The foundation also released an updated budget for the fourth year and an outlook for the fifth year, estimating that the new circulation in the fifth year will be about 273 million OP tokens (excluding the possibly reallocated airdrop quota), with approximately 200 million expected to be invested in the ecosystem fund.
According to DefiLlama data, its total TVL has significantly dropped from a peak of $5.5 billion to $526 million.
The crypto market's layer two networks are currently facing issues such as user attrition and lack of innovation. According to the latest data from Token Terminal, its core developers have decreased to 42, while at the peak at the end of 2024, this number was 144.
Currently, Optimism is shifting towards the corporate market, including fintech, trading platforms, payment institutions, and traditional financial institutions, with existing collaborations including Bitpanda, Ink, and Dunamu.
Specifically, the proposal requests:
The airdrops from rounds 1 to 5 will not be affected. If the proposal passes, the foundation will update the token allocation documents and public accounting records, and continue to use the existing grant supervision and annual budget reporting mechanisms. The fifth-year budget outlook has already assumed zero airdrop input and noted that this outlook is independent of the current reallocation proposal.
After the official proposal was initiated, early voting initially leaned towards support. However, as community discussions intensified, opposition quickly rose. The main criticisms focused on three points: the original share reserved for users being repurposed as corporate growth funds led by the foundation, the official using DAO governance as a pretext to reclaim tokens; and after the airdrop and Retro Funding were eliminated, the incentive paths for ordinary users further narrowed.
Among them, the change in attitude of the long-term participant in Optimism governance, the airdrop whale olimpio.eth, has attracted attention. This account had maintained a high level of participation in over 120 governance votes, and its voting record shows it cast 2,165,459 opposing votes, viewed by the community as its first opposing vote since participating in Optimism governance. Some participants criticized
The community discussions repeatedly called for "retaining future airdrop rights," while others argued that even if the proposal does not pass, the official currently has no new airdrop plans, and the actual impact is limited.
If the proposal ultimately passes, the token distribution structure of Optimism will officially shift from "user airdrop + ecosystem incentives" to further tilt towards corporate and institutional growth. This aligns with its OP Enterprise product line, Superchain expansion, and the overall trend of disciplined spending. For token holders, in the short term, it may strengthen the expectation that "growth takes precedence over widespread distribution," potentially putting more pressure on the token price.
There are still about two days left before the voting deadline, and the final result may still have variables. As of the time of publication, market data shows that the current market value of Optimism (OP) tokens is approximately $185 million, with the token price fluctuating around $0.08, and the FDV is $348 million.
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