Optimism, the Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, has officially confirmed that approximately 343 million OP tokens—worth around $29.6 million at current prices—will enter circulation between May 2026 and April 2027. The unlock plan consists of 200 million OP allocated to the ecosystem fund, 47.6 million OP for initial contributors, and 15.3 million OP for investors.
Once these tokens are released, OP’s circulating supply will climb to roughly 2.504 billion tokens, representing 58.3% of the total supply of 4.29 billion. The Optimism Foundation stressed that this release follows the project’s original distribution plan from its 2022 token launch, with no new allocations requested.
In parallel, the Optimism Collective disclosed its budget outlook for the fifth operational year, noting that new commitments in the preceding fourth year (May 2025–April 2026) totaled approximately 150 million OP, a one‑third decline from the 229.92 million OP recorded in year three. The reduction was attributed to the discontinuation of the Retro Funding program, the absence of user airdrops, a smaller Grants Council budget, and fewer foundation‑led grants. Year‑on‑year, the Governance Fund saw a 53% drop in new tokens entering circulation (from 28.7M to 13.4M OP), while Retro Funding distributions fell 30% (20.3M to 14.2M OP) and no airdrop allocations were made, compared to 10.4M OP a year earlier.
By spreading the unlock over a 12‑month window and coupling it with transparent governance, Optimism aims to mitigate sudden sell‑side pressure while still fueling ecosystem development and rewarding early backers.
