Optimism (OP) is a major Layer 2 network that makes Ethereum cheaper and faster by processing transactions off the main chain and settling them back to it (an 'optimistic rollup'). Its bigger ambition is the 'Superchain': a shared blueprint (the 'OP Stack') that lets many blockchains be built the same way and eventually connect into one interoperable web of chains. The idea is that OP becomes the standard toolkit for launching L2s, and those chains share security and, ideally, revenue. OP is the governance token, used to vote on how the ecosystem and its treasury are run, and increasingly tied to network revenue via buybacks.
Where it stands today: the OP Stack has real pull — dozens of chains (World Chain, Zora, Ink, Soneium and others) are built on it, and the Superchain accounts for a large chunk of the entire L2 fee market. In 2026 governance approved routing half of net Superchain sequencer revenue into monthly OP buybacks, directly linking the token to activity. But there was a serious blow: Coinbase's Base — by far the biggest and most active OP Stack chain — announced it would migrate off the OP Stack, undercutting the revenue-sharing model that was central to OP's value story. So today it's a leading L2 standard with genuine adoption, but facing a real question about how much of that activity's value flows back to the OP token.