The Optimism Foundation governance body has approved a proposal allocating 50% of all Superchain revenue toward buybacks of Optimism (OP) tokens over the next 12 months, beginning in February.
What Happened: Buyback Program Approved
The proposal, submitted by the Optimism Foundation on Jan. 8, passed Thursday with 33.27% of votes in favor, 3.23% against and 3.95% abstaining.
Previously, 100% of Superchain revenue went to a treasury overseen by the Optimism governance community. The Superchain is a network of layer-2 chains built on the open-source OP stack, including Sony's Soneium, Unichain, Ink and Coinbase's Base.
Under the new structure, Optimism will partner with an over-the-counter provider to execute monthly conversions of Ether (ETH) to OP. Based on last year's Superchain revenue, a comparable allocation would have directed roughly 2,700 ETH toward buybacks, or approximately $8 million in OP at current prices.
The accumulated tokens could be used for burning, funding ecosystem expansion or rewarding network security participants.
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Why It Matters: Token Utility Expansion
Executive director Bobby Dresser called the approval an "exciting first step in expanding the role of the OP token." He said that the program "will help align the OP token's value with the success of the Superchain ecosystem."
The move aims to tie OP's value more directly to network performance. Despite the governance milestone, OP declined 1.9% over 24 hours to trade at $0.26.