Optimism’s Year 4 budget update states its OP buyback has purchased more than 9 million OP since launch. The Buyback Communication Thread that Optimism set up to track the program lists one purchase since it began, in early March. A governance participant raised concerns about the program’s dependence on Base’s revenue in writing five months ago.
The buyback’s tracking thread lists one purchase
Optimism’s Year 4 budget update, posted to the Collective’s governance forum on August 6, states that a 12-month buyback program funded by up to 50% of Superchain revenue has purchased more than 9 million OP. Optimism’s Buyback Communication Thread, created to document each month’s execution, lists one purchase since the program’s February launch: in early March, 1,574,817 OP was bought for 95.8 ETH and settled to wallet. The thread states it will be updated monthly.
On February 19, one day after Base’s planned departure from the OP Stack was announced, a governance participant posting as GFXlabs wrote on the buyback proposal thread:
“Given the coming departure of Base, we believe it would be best to pause buybacks to preserve capital.”
What changed in the Foundation’s checkbook
New OP entering circulation from the Governance Fund fell 53% year over year, to 13.4 million OP from 28.7 million. Retro Funding issuance fell 30%, to 14.2 million OP from 20.3 million. Airdrops fell to zero, from 10.4 million OP the year before.
| Category | Year 3 | Year 4 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governance Fund (new circulating OP) | 28.7M | 13.4M | -53% |
| Retro Funding (new circulating OP) | 20.3M | 14.2M | -30% |
| Airdrops (new circulating OP) | 10.4M | 0 | -100% |
| Total new commitments (Seasons) | 229.92M | ~150M | -~1/3 |
OP Enterprise customers, by stage of deployment
Bitpanda’s Vision Chain is live as the first fully managed OP Enterprise deployment, serving Bitpanda’s 7 million European users. Ink has upgraded to the Fully Managed tier. Dunamu’s GIWA Chain is operating under a non-binding memorandum of understanding signed in Miami in May, with Dunamu retaining control of the primary sequencer under the Self-Managed tier; as of the most recent public testnet data, GIWA had processed close to 100 million transactions on testnet, with no mainnet date confirmed. Ether.fi’s Cash product migrated to OP Mainnet with zero downtime in February, bringing approximately $220 million in TVL and more than 70,000 active cards.
OP’s price and the Superchain revenue base
OP reached an all-time low of $0.082 on August 1, 2026, down approximately 98% from its March 2024 high of $4.85, with a market capitalization of approximately $195 million to $200 million. OP’s market capitalization was approximately $611 million in January 2026, at the time governance approved the buyback. Industry tracking placed Optimism’s buyback program at roughly 0.7% of OP’s fully diluted valuation on an annualized basis, compared to other 2025-2026 token buyback programs ranging from approximately $40 million to over $600 million. Combined Chain GDP across the top five OP Stack chains was $144.8 million in Q1 2026, down 29.9% quarter over quarter, in the same period Base exited the OP Stack.
Two statements on the Retro Funding pause
The Year 4 update describes Retro Funding as paused “to evaluate the impact of the OP committed to date.” Optimism’s January 8, 2026 post announcing the pause stated the program “will not run for at least the next 12 months,” and that a proposal to reallocate some or all of the approximately 775 million OP reserved for it “may be put forward… in the coming months.” The Year 4 update does not include the 12-month timeframe or the reallocation prospect.
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