Summary
Year 4 (May 2025 to April 2026) was a year of focus and fiscal discipline. The Collective committed roughly 150M OP of new commitments across Season 8 and Season 9, about one third less than the 229.92M OP committed in Year 3, while sharpening token deployment around a single strategic objective: growing OP Mainnet and winning OP Enterprise customers.
No new token allocation was requested. The Foundation continues to operate entirely within the original allocation framework.
Key shifts this year:
- Reduced OP spend: New commitments decreased materially year over year, driven by the pause of Retro Funding, no user airdrops during the period, a reduced Grants Council budget, and lower Foundation grant issuance. New OP entering circulation from the Governance Fund fell 53% (13.4M vs 28.7M OP), Retro Funding fell 30% (14.2M vs 20.3M OP), and Airdrops fell to zero (vs 10.4M OP in Year 3).
- Strategic realignment: Token deployment is now aligned with the OP Enterprise strategy, concentrating incentives where they drive measurable outcomes: OP Mainnet growth and the acquisition of new OP Enterprise customers.
- Enterprise traction: OP Enterprise launched in January 2026 across its Fully Managed, Self Managed, and OP Mainnet tiers, with early customers and design partners including Bitpanda’s Vision Chain, Ink’s upgrade to Fully Managed, Dunamu signed MOU for GIWA Chain, and Ether.fi bringing payments-oriented DeFi to OP Mainnet with $220M in TVL and 70,000+ active cards
- OP Mainnet growth: OP Mainnet was one of the few OP Chains to grow transactions through the period, increasing monthly transactions by 60%+ during Year 4. (source: Superchain Health Dashboard)
- Buyback: Governance approved a 12 month buyback program directing up to 50% of Superchain revenue toward monthly OP purchases, buying back 9M+ OP thus far.
Financial Overview
Total circulating supply: 2,287,994,831 OP (53.3% of total)
Total committed: 2,618,206,919 OP (61.0% of total)
Figures as of 6 August 2026. The current circulating supply of OP is maintained in the public OP Token Unlock tracker and updated weekly. See Appendix for definitions of Circulating vs. Committed OP and Ecosystem Fund info.
| Category | Total OP Circulating (August 2026) | Total OP Committed (August 2026) | Total OP Allocated | % of Total Supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governance Fund | 102,449,522 | 126,578,027 | 231,928,234 | 5.4% |
| Ecosystem Fund (Partner Fund, Seed Fund, Unallocated) | 417,377,477 | 685,698,656 | 841,813,590 | 19.6% |
| Airdrops | 269,114,391 | 269,114,391 | 816,043,786 | 19.0% |
| Retro Funding | 76,275,060 | 81,400,000 | 858,993,459 | 20.0% |
| Early Core Contributors | 686,919,487 | 719,556,951 | 810,329,332 | 18.9% |
| Investors | 735,858,894 | 735,858,894 | 735,858,894 | 17.1% |
| Cumulative Total | 2,287,994,831 | 2,618,206,919 | 4,294,967,296 | 100% |
| % Relative to Fully Diluted Supply | 53.3% | 61.0% |
New OP entering circulation, Year 4 vs Year 3:
| Category | Year 4 (May 2025 to April 2026) | Year 3 (May 2024 to April 2025) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governance Fund | 13,383,563 | 28,737,228 | -53% |
| Ecosystem Fund | 208,518,394 | 136,262,652 | +53%* |
| Airdrops | 0 | 10,368,678 | -100% |
| Retro Funding | 14,219,609 | 20,253,265 | -30% |
- Note on the Ecosystem Fund: the increase in circulating Ecosystem Fund tokens does not reflect new spend. As in Year 3, it is primarily driven by previously committed partner grants becoming unlocked as they vest or hit milestones. New Ecosystem Fund commitments in Year 4 were significantly lower than in prior years.
Year 4 Strategic Highlights: Season 8 & 9
Budget Impact and Strategic Alignment
Year 4 marks the transition from establishing baseline ROI metrics to actively managing the budget against them. Every OP committed in Year 4 maps to one of two strategic outcomes:
- Acquiring OP Enterprise customers: Optimism saw strong traction in Year 4 under the new OP Enterprise model. Bitpanda’s Vision Chain has been announced, INK has upgraded to Fully Managed and Dunamu signed an MOU for GIWA Chain.
- Growing OP Mainnet: OP Mainnet was one of the few chains to grow transactions through the period, increasing monthly transactions by 60%+ during Year 4.
This discipline connects directly to token value accrual: governance approved a 12 month buyback program directing 50% of Superchain revenue toward monthly OP purchases, tying the OP token to the revenue generated across the Superchain.
Ecosystem Growth: Refocused on OP Enterprise and OP Mainnet
Strategic refocus: In January 2026, OP Enterprise launched as the Collective’s offering for institutions that need production grade blockchain infrastructure: fintechs, exchanges, payments companies, and financial institutions. Ecosystem Fund deployment in Year 4 was reoriented to support this strategy. Rather than broad based grants across many programs, tokens were committed where they directly drive OP Mainnet adoption and bring new enterprise customers into the ecosystem.
Core Stack Development: The Foundation continued to fund critical protocol work in support of the enterprise roadmap, including throughput improvements targeting 200 Mgas per second, block times as low as 200 milliseconds, OP Succinct ZK proof integration for faster withdrawals, and native privacy infrastructure for the OP Stack.
OP Mainnet Growth: With OP Mainnet serving as the entry point of the OP Enterprise strategy, where institutions access existing liquidity and validate use cases before graduating to a dedicated chain, targeted incentives supported application deployments and migrations such as ether.fi’s Cash product. OP Mainnet was one of the few OP Chains to grow transaction volume through the period.
Gov Tooling, Foundation Gov Missions and Community: The Foundation continued to support governance operations, including compensation for elected governance bodies, security council members, and governance tooling, at a reduced level relative to prior years.
The Foundation’s approach remains mission aligned and outcome driven, with a higher bar for capital deployment than in prior years.
Retroactive Public Goods Funding: Program Paused
Following the conclusion of the Season 7 Retro Funding Missions (Onchain Builders and Developer Tooling), Retro Funding was paused in Year 4 and no new rounds or missions were initiated.
Final Season 7 mission payouts brought cumulative Retro Funding commitments to 81.4M OP (9.5% of the 859M OP allocation), with 90.5% (777.6M OP) preserved for future retroactive rewards.
The pause allows the Collective to evaluate the impact of the OP committed to date and ensure that any future retroactive rewards reinforce the Collective’s strategic priorities before further capital is deployed.
Governance Fund: Reduced Grants Council Budget
The Governance Fund continued to operate as an avenue for community led grants, with a deliberately reduced scope. The Grants Council operated under the DAO Operating Budget ceiling of 4.2M OP approved by governance for Seasons 8 and 9, a significant reduction from prior Seasons. New OP entering circulation from the Governance Fund fell 53% year over year, from 28.7M OP in Year 3 to 13.4M OP in Year 4.
In total, 126.6M OP of the Governance Fund’s 231.9M OP allocation has been committed to date, leaving 105.4M OP (45%) available.
This reduction reflects the Collective’s broader commitment to spending in proportion to revenue and directing grants toward strategic outcomes.
Airdrops: No Airdrops in Year 4
No airdrops were conducted in Year 4, following the completion of Airdrop 5 in Year 3. This reflects the Collective’s shift away from broad based user incentives toward targeted growth programs with measurable retention and revenue outcomes. Total OP committed via user airdrops remains 269.1M OP (33% of the 816M OP allocation), with 546.9M OP preserved. The SuperStacks pilot concluded during the period with 2.5M OP committed.
Year 5 Budget Outlook
Note: The budget outlook is independent from the Airdrop re-purposing proposal, the estimates assume no re-purposing of airdrop tokens.
Looking ahead, the Foundation will continue managing the budget within the original allocation framework, with deployment concentrated on OP Mainnet growth and OP Enterprise customer acquisition.
The table below outlines directional estimates of additional OP entering circulation in Year 5 (May 2026 to April 2027). These projections are subject to adjustment based on program performance and governance input:
| Category | Year 5 Forecast |
|---|---|
| Governance Fund | 10M OP |
| Ecosystem Fund | 200M OP |
| Airdrops | 0 OP |
| Retro Funding | 0 OP |
| Early Core Contributors | 47.6M OP |
| Investors | 15.3M OP |
| Estimated circulating supply, end of Year 5 | 2,504M OP (58.3% of total) |
Key Principles:
- Spend follows strategy: Token deployment is tied to the OP Enterprise strategy and measured against OP Mainnet growth and enterprise customer acquisition.
- Community engagement: The next full year update will be posted with the Year 6 outlook by June 2027.
- Impact Measurement: Continued investment in reporting infrastructure to measure grant effectiveness and refine allocation strategies based on demonstrated impact.
Appendix (Accounting Notes)
- Circulating Supply: Defined as OP tokens in general circulation that have no known restrictions on transfer. This definition may be different than, or inconsistent with, the definitions used by other parties. The circulating supply can be accessed at https://static.optimism.io/tokenomics/circulatingSupply.txt
- Total OP Committed: Defined as Circulating Supply + all OP tokens that have been granted subject to a lock-up + all OP tokens that have been conditionally committed based on vesting and completing milestones + tokens OP Labs holds other than the initial allocation of 36%.
- Ecosystem Fund: The Ecosystem Fund is the culmination of the Partner, Seed and Unallocated funds, whose allocation of total supply is 19.6%. We have merged these buckets into one ‘Ecosystem’ fund, for ease of planning and reporting.
- Figures in this update are stated as of August 2026 unless otherwise noted. Year over year comparisons use fiscal years running May through April.
Please note that the Foundation budget comes from the initial 30% supply and is not subject to governance approval. If the Foundation ever wishes to request more tokens, that will require governance approval. In the meantime, updates are provided solely for transparency.