Summary
The Optimism Foundation’s operating budget of OP, subject to governance approval by the Token House, maintains the original budget set into motion in both Year 1 and Year 2 proposals.
For this year’s operating budget, The Foundation is requesting zero additional OP and will continue deploying existing allocations against key initiatives across the Collective.
There will not be a Token House vote on this budget as no OP is being requested.
Background
The Optimism Foundation administers a portion of the token supply to further the Collective’s goals. This set of tokens is referred to as the “Foundation Budget,” which must be utilized in line with overall OP Token Allocations.
The primary operating budget for Year 2 (June 2023 - May 2024) carried over from the initial OP token allocation at the founding of the Collective on April 24, 2022. In 2023, an additional 1 OP was requested (symbolically) towards Year 2’s budget as a means to initiate the Token House for future budget approvals. We received feedback from delegates that they did not like the symbolic vote and are therefore providing transparency into the budget for 2024 but will not initiate a symbolic vote.
Overall OP Allocations
The overall ecosystem allocations of the total initial supply of OP (as outlined in the governance documentation) are as follows:
- 858,993,459 OP (20%) to Retroactive Public Goods Funding
- 1,073,741,824 OP (25%) to Ecosystem Fund (Governance Fund, Partner Fund, Seed Fund, Unallocated)
- 816,043,786 OP (19%) to User Airdrops
- 810,329,332 OP (19%) to Core Contributors
- 735,858,894 OP (17%) to Sugar Xaddies
In April 2022, 30% of the total initial token supply was made available to the Foundation for administration in line with the overall token allocations detailed above. In utilizing these tokens, the Foundation may not exceed 30% of the total supply, and may not exceed any individual category’s allocation limit.
Budget Update
Total Token Supply
The current circulating supply of OP, as well as a breakdown in each category, is maintained in the public OP Token Unlock tracker here 28.
As of 30 April 2024, token supply is as follows:
| Category | Total OP Circulating | Total OP Committed | Total OP Allocated | % of total supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governance Fund | 60,801,152 | 76,297,219 | 231,928,234 | 5.4% |
| Partner Fund, Seed Fund, Unallocated | 55,153,657 | 484,674,162 | 841,813,590 | 5.4%+5.4%+8.8% |
| Airdrops | 256,245,713 | 256,245,713 | 816,043,786 | 19.0% |
| RPGF | 32,546,814 | 40,000,000 | 858,993,459 | 20.0% |
| Early Core Contributors | 329,543,520 | 712,140,140 | 810,329,332 | 18.9% |
| Sugar Xaddies | 352,599,107 | 735,858,894 | 735,858,894 | 17.1% |
| Cumulative Total | 1,086,889,963 | 2,305,216,128 | 4,294,967,296 | 100% |
| % Relative to Fully Diluted Supply | 25.3% | 53.7% |
Foundation Budget
In Year 2 (April 20, 2023 → April 19, 2024), the Foundation fueled the growth of the Collective by specifically focusing on giving out tokens from the Ecosystem Fund, Airdrops, as well as Retro Funding. The below showcases percentage changes since November 2023 (our prior mid-year update), where we first introduced accounting for both “circulating” OP and “committed” OP (defined in “Accounting Notes” below).
To increase clarity going forward, we will provide year-over-year comparisons in the future. As always, a full accounting of all circulating OP (including OP outside the Foundation’s budget) is available in the OP Token Unlock tracker.
As of 30 April 2024, these tokens have been administered as follows.
| Category | Total OP Circulating as of 30 April, 2024 | % Change in OP Circulating since Nov 2023 | Total OP Committed as of 30 April, 2024 | % Change in OP Committed since Nov 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retro Funding | 32,546,814 | +302.4% [+8,087,372] | 40,000,000 | 0.0% [40,000,000] |
| Ecosystem Fund | ||||
| (Partner Fund, Seed Fund, Unallocated) | 55,153,657 | 17.68% [+46,865,690]* | 484,674,162 | 13.1% [+428,565,480] |
| Airdrops | 41,497,348 | 33.2% [+31,153,590.1] | 41,497,348 | 33.2% [+31,153,590.1] |
| Cumulative total | 129,197,819 | 24.84% [+103,489,463.1] | 566,171,510 | 13.3% [+499,719,070.1] |
| % of Foundation Budget | 10.03% | 43.94% | ||
| % of Total Supply | 3.01% | 13.18% |
Appendix
- *Note regarding Ecosystem Fund tokens in circulation — Last November the Foundation reported 64.2M circulating OP tokens in the Partner Fund, Seed Fund, and Unallocated bucket, which included OP grants made from Foundation to service providers that are not circulating. The amount in the ‘Unallocated’ bucket has been reduced by ~17.3M tokens, to 46.9M, to account for these tokens as “Committed” rather than “Circulating.”
- Percentages are rounded to the nearest tenth for simplicity. As a result, exact calculations based on these percentages may not match precisely.
- “Circulating” refers to tokens with no known restrictions on sale or transfer.
- “Committed” refers to (1) OP tokens that have been granted subject to a lock-up + (2) all OP tokens that have been conditionally committed subject to vesting or completing milestones.
Ecosystem Growth
Over the past year, Foundation tokens have been used to secure a variety of partnerships, bootstrapping the Superchain with a focus on bringing more L2s and tooling into the Collective. We had the opportunity to welcome some of the most prominent names in the space, including Base, Zora, Redstone, Frax, Celo, Worldcoin, Mode, and Lisk, all launching their own L2 blockspace built on the OP Stack.
In addition, with a goal of reducing chain deployment friction, we set out to establish key infrastructure teams within the Superchain to help improve developer onramp experience. Notable groups like Blockscout, Chainlink, Safe, Gelato, and Conduit, just to name a few, joined as contributors to the cause.
Airdrops
The Foundation successfully initiated Airdrop #3 (Sept 2023) and Airdrop #4 (Feb 2024), delivering a total of 29,755,070.81 OP between the two. Airdrop #3 continued to reward positive sum governance participation while Airdrop #4 focused on celebrating the vibrant creative energy that artists introduce to the Superchain.
Note: Airdrop #4 rewards are still able to be claimed through Feb 13, 2025!
Retro Funding 3
Retro Funding Round 3 rewarded contributors for the impact they provided to the Optimism Collective across four categories: OP Stack, Collective Governance, Developer Ecosystem, End User Experience and Adoption. You can check out a ‘by the numbers’ breakdown here. A special thanks to OP Labs, Agora, West, OS Observer, Pairwise, GrowThePie, Retrolist.app, and RetroPGFhub for enabling Round 3 to happen.
Next Budget Update
The next Foundation Budget update will post in November, 2024.