Re-designating the User Airdrop Allocation as the Strategic Ecosystem Fund

Proposals šŸ“ƒ
1

Proposal Type: Rights Protections

Executive Summary

The Optimism Foundation is proposing to re-designate the unspent tokens in the User Airdrop allocation as a new allocation category, the Strategic Ecosystem Fund, proposed for deploying tokens to grow OP Mainnet and OP Enterprise.

Motivation

For the Optimism Collectiveā€™s first several years, airdrops were among the most important tools the Foundation had. Across five airdrops, the Collective distributed 269.1M OP to bring hundreds of thousands of users and contributors into the ecosystem. Each was treated as an experiment and studied in the open, including through academic analysis of whether the mechanism achieved its goals, such as Did OP Airdrop 2 Increase Governance Engagement? by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak and Did OP Airdrop 5 Increase User Retention Rates? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis.

Taken together, these findings point to a fit problem: airdrops were built for an earlier phase of the Collectiveā€™s growth, centered on broad based user acquisition. That motion does not match the institutional adoption strategy OP Mainnet and OP Enterprise are built around today. This is not necessarily a permanent verdict on airdrops as a mechanism, rather it reflects that, given what weā€™ve learned, they are not the right tool for Optimismā€™s present growth priorities. Should new designs or use-cases emerge that address these limitations, the Foundation will revisit this assessment.

The result is a mismatch in Optimismā€™s token allocation: With no airdrops currently planned, a substantial pool of tokens the Foundation is authorized to deploy remains bound to a purpose the Collective is not currently pursuing. At the same time, the allocation that has supported the Collectiveā€™s growth work, the Partner, Seed, and Unallocated funds, has been successful at supporting OP stack adoption to 40%+ market share of L2 transactions.

Meanwhile the Foundationā€™s strategy has entered a new phase: With OP Enterprise, Optimism offers production-grade, managed blockchain infrastructure to fintechs, exchanges, payments companies, and financial institutions moving onchain, across Fully Managed, Self Managed, and OP Mainnet tiers. OP Mainnet is the entry point of that journey: institutions can validate their model on the public network with real users and deep liquidity, then graduate to a dedicated chain when ready. This is already driving strong results across Bitpandaā€™s Vision Chain, Inkā€™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.

Accelerating this growth requires additional deployment of tokens, both in partnerships and in deals that bring institutions onto the network. Thus, the Foundation is proposing to repurpose the unspent tokens from the User Airdrop allocation into a new allocation, the Strategic Ecosystem Fund, dedicated to growing OP Enterprise and OP Mainnet. This ensures idle tokens can be put to productive use and aligns Optimismā€™s token allocation with Optimismā€™s strategy.

Specifications

Technical details

  • Create a new allocation category, the Strategic Ecosystem Fund, within the overall OP token allocations.
  • Re-designate the unspent Airdrop allocation balance of 546.9M OP to the Strategic Ecosystem Fund.
  • The purpose of the Strategic Ecosystem Fund is to deploy tokens to grow OP Mainnet and OP Enterprise adoption, including partnership deals that bring chains, protocols, institutions, and infrastructure to the OP Stack; incentives that deepen onchain activity and liquidity on OP Mainnet; and deals that expand the OP Stackā€™s reach with institutions and top-tier brands.
  • Tokens already distributed via Airdrops #1 through #5 are unaffected.

Action Plan

  • Upon approval, the Foundation updates the OP token allocation documentation to reflect the Strategic Ecosystem Fund and its purpose, and reflects the re-designation in the public token accounting.
  • Tokens deployed from the Strategic Ecosystem Fund follow the Foundationā€™s existing deployment and reporting practices.
  • Progress and cumulative deployment are reported to the Collective through the yearly Foundation budget report.

Conclusion

Rather than leave a large pool of tokens locked to a purpose the Collective no longer pursues, this proposal re-allocates those tokens toward the growth of OP Mainnet and OP Enterprise.

The Foundation requests the Collectiveā€™s approval to re-designate the unspent Airdrop allocation as the Strategic Ecosystem Fund.

3 Likes
2

I support the strategic rationale for re designating the unused 546.9M OP allocation, since no further user airdrops are currently planned and Optimism is prioritizing OP Mainnet and OP Enterprise adoption.

However, this is a large change in the intended use of OP supply. The Strategic Ecosystem Fund should therefore have stronger transparency and accountability than standard deployment reporting alone.

I would like to see clear public reporting on:

OP deployed by category, including partnerships, liquidity incentives, infrastructure, and institutional deals

Recipient level disclosure, allocation size, lockup or vesting terms, and any clawback conditions

Measurable outcomes, such as retained users, liquidity quality, fees, developer activity, and chain adoption

A clear distinction between OP Mainnet public goods growth and OP Enterprise commercial deals

Periodic review by the Collective on whether deployments are delivering sustainable ecosystem value rather than short term activity

Reallocation can be reasonable, but token holders and delegates need enough visibility to assess dilution risk, capital efficiency, and alignment with the Collectiveā€™s mission. With these safeguards, I am supportive of the proposal.

3 Likes
3

I am against this proposal
More OP has already gone into the ecosystem growth bucket than to users ā€” and the results speak for themselves.

User airdrops distributed 269.1M OP.
The Ecosystem Fund (Partner + Seed + Unallocated) has already committed ~686M OP ā€” more than 2.5Ɨ as much. Hundreds of millions more have unlocked and circulated from earlier partner deals.

This was promised to users. we have used the airdrop allocation like a carrot on a string dangling it in front of users, now we want to sweep it into strategic eco fund. the reason the airdrop is unspent is because the foundation doesnā€™t distribute it. almost as if this was the plan from the beginning. a few years ago Ben said something on the lines of ā€¦ OP drop, users can expect OP drops more frequentlyā€¦ since then 0 OP airdropsā€¦ and now we want to used it a different wayā€¦

Yet here we are in mid-2026: OP Mainnet is still not the dominant public chain most people actually use day-to-day, Superchain market share has slipped from earlier peaks, and the pivot to ā€œOP Enterpriseā€ is still in its early, unproven stages. The Foundation itself just cut overall new commitments by ~35% and paused Retro Funding because the previous broad spend wasnā€™t delivering the desired ROI.

Now the proposal wants to take the remaining 546.9M OP that was explicitly earmarked for users and fold it into yet another Foundation-controlled growth fund. That is not ā€œaligning allocation with strategy.ā€ It is quietly rewriting the original social contract after the user-facing side of the experiment under-delivered relative to the much larger ecosystem spend that already happened.

I am fully against this. we are just screwing users with this proposal. just distribute OP drops like promised.

very disappointing

2 Likes
4

Iā€™m against this proposal.

I understand the shift toward OP Mainnet and enterprise adoption, but the community and users are still a major part of the ecosystem.

Farmers and active users bring liquidity, transactions, experimentation, and attention to the ecosystem. With the right incentives, many can become long-term users and contributors.

The broader crypto market is still relatively weak, which makes airdrops harder, but they should still be considered depending on market conditions.

Iā€™d rather see at least half of the remaining allocation, or some meaningful portion, reserved for future airdrops instead of fully removing it from the community.

5

In its current form, I am not in favor of this proposal.

There are pros and cons on both sides, whether the funds are use for airdrop or allocated toward an ecosystem fund. It is clear from on-chain metrics that Optimism is lagging behind other major L2s. While both an airdrop and ecosystem expansion could potentially help the network grow, this proposal is too vague and leaves many questions unanswered.

Using the Base deal as a reference (approx. 115M OP over 6 years), my advice would be to lower the requested amount to around 120M OP (target two for a duration of three year). If legal constraints prevent disclosing the specific ask or terms of potential deals, I would argue that tentative plan and a cap of approximately 60M OP is a reasonalble ask.

Furthermore, I believe an airdrop could significantly boost chain activity, and that option should remain on the table. A dual strategy that combines targeted ecosystem grants with user-facing airdrops typically yields higher user retention and daily active addresses than a single massive grant program.