Superchain Fuels Optimism: How a Strategic Buyback is Propelling OP Coin to New Heights

OP Token surges as its governing collective deploys a classic corporate finance maneuver—with a crypto twist.

The Buyback Breakdown

The Optimism Collective isn't just talking about value—it's actively engineering it. By allocating a portion of its treasury, sourced from sequencer fees, to repurchase OP tokens from the open market, the protocol executes a deflationary playbook straight from Wall Street. It reduces circulating supply, theoretically boosting scarcity and price support—all while ostensibly signaling deep confidence in its own roadmap.

Superchain as the Growth Engine

This isn't happening in a vacuum. The buyback strategy is directly fueled by the expanding 'Superchain' ecosystem—a network of Layer-2 chains sharing security and communication layers. As more chains build on the OP Stack and pay fees back to the Collective, the treasury's revenue base grows. It's a self-reinforcing loop: ecosystem growth funds buybacks, which aim to bolster the token that underpins the ecosystem. A neat piece of financial engineering, assuming adoption keeps pace with ambition.

The Market's Verdict

Traders have responded with bullish momentum, pushing OP notably higher on the announcement. The move cuts through typical 'governance token' ambiguity by attaching a clear, quantifiable value accrual mechanism. It bypasses vague promises of future utility and links token economics directly to protocol revenue—a narrative that resonates in a market hungry for fundamentals beyond memes and speculation.

Of course, in the grand tradition of finance, a buyback can be as much about optics as economics—a shiny object to distract from development timelines or competitive pressures. But for now, Optimism's play is working: it's getting the market to buy the story as it buys back the token.

Optimism’s Strategic Buyback Initiative

Starting next month, the Optimism Foundation will utilize the revenue from Superchain to fund a buyback program. The team proposing this strategy aims to support the struggling token while simultaneously strengthening its ecosystem. A significant devaluation of the token could negatively impact the network’s user base, community strength, and overall operations.

In the last five years, the OP Stack has transformed from an ethereum scaling experiment to the default infrastructure for serious developers. Exchanges, enterprises, and blue-chip organizations are standardizing Superchain for the security, scalability, and economic clarity needed to support the world’s most liquid markets. Superchain controls 61.4% of the L2 fee market share and processes 13% of all crypto transactions, with these shares continuing to grow. According to the Optimism Foundation, the OP token should align with this momentum and growth.

However, this has not been the case, making token support essential. Projects like Base, Unichain, Ink, World Chain, Soneium, OP Mainnet, and many others are built on the OP Stack L2 network, generating revenue from Superchain. All these networks contribute a portion of their validator revenue back to Optimism. Over the past twelve months, Optimism earned 5,868 ETH in revenue, which was fully transferred to a treasury overseen by Optimism governance.

Roughly 50% of Superchain’s revenue will be used to purchase OP monthly over the next year, with an estimated buyback of $7.2 million corresponding to a market cap of $615 million. If similar revenue to last year’s is achieved, the buyback will amount to around $7.5 million, offering positive support for the OP price despite not being massive.

The governance vote expected to approve this initiative is set to be held on January 22, with the program commencing in February.

OP Coin’s Price Challenges

Over 679 days, OP Coin has suffered a 94% drop, consistently hitting lower peaks. After losing the $2.27 level, OP Coin has struggled throughout 2025, unable to surpass $0.35 in the new year. The results of the initial supply and subsequent rapid unlocking periods are unsurprising.

If $0.35 can be reclaimed, attempts could be made to reach last year’s $0.83 resistance again. However, an overall positive market sentiment is necessary, as OP has not managed to differentiate positively even with the latest buyback program.