Optimism (OP) Monthly Buyback Falls 87% to 926,000 Tokens

Optimism News

Optimism (OP), an Ethereum layer-2 altcoin, is facing a sharper contraction in its main source of token demand. The Optimism Foundation said it will not promise to extend monthly OP repurchases beyond the program’s initial 12-month term, adding that the policy will be reassessed when that period closes and community feedback is considered. The mechanism directs up to half of Superchain revenue toward buying OP each month, but the disclosed volume has fallen steeply. Foundation records published August 7 show January revenue funded 1.57 million OP, March revenue funded 6.95 million OP, and April revenue funded only 926,000 OP. That represents an 87% decline from March to April. Settlement occurred in Ether: outlays dropped from 367.9 ETH in March to 50.2 ETH in April, making the April purchase worth roughly $95,000. Across the three reported tranches, total spending reached 513.9 ETH, about $975,000. The statement also declined to provide Superchain revenue projections, leaving traders without a clear estimate of future buying capacity. The contraction follows a difficult stretch after Coinbase’s Base network, a prominent appchain, left the OP Stack in February, a departure that preceded a 23% OP decline and staff cuts above 20%. For a Optimism market that has relied on programmatic demand, the smaller tranches turn the buyback from a predictable support mechanism into a discretionary policy under review.

The second material disclosure concerns OP’s supply schedule, which the Foundation updated after earlier budget tables appeared outdated. The revised figures place circulating supply at 2.288 billion tokens, higher than the initially published 2.161 billion. The Foundation directed readers to a separate circulating-supply tracker and explained that large token additions are usually recorded during the first week of each month, creating temporary gaps between reports. It also asked that the schedule be read against Optimism’s fiscal calendar rather than the calendar year. Fiscal Year Four ran from May 2025 through April 2026, while Fiscal Year Five began in May 2026 and runs through April 2027. Using that framework, the Foundation put circulating supply at 2,231.5 million at the end of the prior fiscal year and expects 272.9 million OP to enter circulation during the current year, bringing the year-end total to 2,504.4 million. From the updated August baseline, roughly 216 million tokens remain unreleased. At current prices, that allocation is worth about $19.7 million and equals roughly 9% of OP’s present market value. Buybacks have absorbed only 9.45 million OP so far, covering about 4.4% of the supply still scheduled to reach the market. That overhang is modest relative to daily volume but becomes important if programmatic demand continues to weaken.

The policy shift extends beyond repurchases. Retro Funding, Optimism’s grants program that was paused in January, has been set at zero for the current budget year and is operating on its own 12-month review clock. The Foundation said the Collective will reassess that program and its alignment with Optimism strategy once the pause expires. It also reiterated that it does not provide guidance on airdrop distributions, leaving one of the ecosystem’s most closely watched incentive tools without a public schedule. Together, these changes mean two major demand-side mechanisms — direct buybacks and ecosystem funding — are now subject to periodic review rather than standing commitments. That creates a more cautious framework for token holders, particularly after the Base departure reduced the revenue-generating footprint of the Superchain. The latest update also restated that the buyback program began in January with a pledge to use as much as half of Superchain revenue, making the current slowdown more visible. The lack of forward commitments may also affect how traders value future OP emissions, since zero Retro Funding removes a potential source of ecosystem activity and user incentives. For OP, the central question is whether future policy will prioritize token demand, grants, or budget preservation during a broader bear market phase.

COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates the $0.0919 resistance at 63/100, driven by R2 and Ichimoku Kijun, while $0.0900 support scores 48/100 from EMA 20 and MACD Cross. With OP at $0.0909, RSI 49.15, a 0.0045% funding rate, $24.36 million open interest and a 1.66 long/short ratio, positioning is mildly long despite a broader downtrend and a Fear & Greed reading of 30. A daily close above $0.0919 could open $0.1032, but rejection would keep the downtrend active. Loss of $0.0900 would shift focus to $0.0826, where Keltner Lower and Donchian Lower underpin a 66/100 score.