My honest thoughts on Optimism buybacks:

Optimism passed an 84% vote to use 50% of Superchain revenue for OP buybacks.

Price stayed flat on announcement.

Here's what's actually happening:

What They're Doing

> Optimism earns revenue from Superchain chains (Base, Unichain, World Chain all pay fees)

> Last 12 months: $17.6M revenue

> New plan: Use 50% ($8.8M) to buy back OP tokens monthly

> Starts February 2026

Where the Money Comes From

> Base (Coinbase's L2) generates 87% of all Superchain revenue

> Optimism collected $17.6M total last year from all Superchain chains

> Most of this came from Base's fees

> Base keeps majority of what it earns, pays Optimism a percentage

> So Optimism built the technology but Base captures most of the value

The Execution Problem

> Foundation wants to use private OTC deals instead of buying on DEXs. Their reason: "DEX liquidity isn't sufficient"

> But critics point out: If your own DeFi ecosystem can't handle $700K monthly buys, that's a bad signal

Why Major Delegates Voted Against

> GFXlabs: "Financially self-cancelling and value destructive"

> Their logic: Don't buy back tokens while you're still issuing new tokens for grants

> Better option: Use revenue to pay for grants directly, stop issuing new tokens

> Worried OTC lacks transparency - could be exit liquidity for insiders

The Market Response

84% governance approval = 0% price increase

OP is down 79% over the past year

Concept is right: tie token to revenue

Execution has issues: OTC opacity, continuing to issue tokens while buying back

Foundation promised to move on-chain in 6 months - we'll see if they follow through