Author: Nancy, PANews
In recent months, an increasing number of crypto projects have entered the L2 track, among which the technical solution OP Stack has frequently appeared, especially with the addition of some star-level projects, making the OP Mainnet (Optimism) attract much market attention. While the OP Stack ecological map expands rapidly, the scale and activity of the Superchain ecology have also significantly increased, which cannot be separated from the generous subsidy policy of OP Mainnet; however, currently, the profits contributed by most Superchains remain relatively limited, primarily relying on the Base chain under Coinbase.
Nearly half of Ethereum L2s are based on OP Stack, and Superchain’s daily transaction volume accounts for over 40% of the market.
Coinbase launched the Ethereum L2 network Base based on OP Stack; Worldcoin announced the launch of the OP Stack-based blockchain World Chain and joined the Superchain; Uniswap launched its own Layer 2 network Unichain built on OP Stack technology; Sony's Layer 2 blockchain Soneium used the OP Stack codebase... In recent months, OP Stack has welcomed an increasing number of star participants.
In fact, OP Stack is currently the relatively more popular and attractive L2 Stack in the Ethereum L2 market. L2BEAT data shows that as of October 31, the number of Ethereum Layer 2s has reached 111. Superchain Eco statistics indicate that of these, 59 L2s are built on OP Stack, far exceeding other competitors, such as the 31 L2 projects using Arbitrum One and only 8 using Polygon.
Moreover, L2 projects running on OP Stack have significant influence. L2BEAT statistics show that among the top ten Ethereum L2s by TVL, six L2 projects use OP Stack as the technical solution, especially Base, which firmly ranks second with $8.17 billion.
While OP Stack continues to make strides, the ecology of Superchain is also expanding, which is an important weapon for OP Mainnet to solve the fragmentation issue of the L2 ecology. According to Superchain Eco statistics, as of October 31, there are currently 36 OP Chains that have joined the Superchain ecology, with these chains having a daily transaction volume of 7.6 million (an increase of 23.7% compared to last month), accounting for 43.1% of the L2 market.
Additionally, DeFiLlama data shows that the TVL of OP Chains on Superchain has exceeded $3.67 billion. Among them, Base ranks first with a scale of $2.65 billion, accounting for 72.1% of the share; followed by OP Mainnet, which has a TVL of $670 million, accounting for 18.4%; Mode follows closely with a TVL of over $230 million, accounting for nearly 6.4%. In contrast, most other projects have a TVL of less than $100 million, with some projects having only a few thousand dollars.
Generous token subsidies for Superchain, with over $42 million in revenue primarily relying on contributions from Base.
The rapid development of the OP Mainnet ecology is largely due to its generous funding subsidy strategy. This 'scatter token' subsidy not only successfully attracted numerous developers and projects but also effectively motivated market participants, laying a solid foundation for the rapid growth and prosperity of its ecology.
According to official documents, the Optimism Collective primarily supports builders through two types of funding: retrospective public goods funding (Retro Funding) and mission grants (Mission Grants). The official disclosed data shows that since 2022, the Optimism Collective has distributed over 60.81 million OP tokens in past rounds of retrospective public goods funding, and has reserved 800 million OP tokens for future rounds of rewards. In terms of funding scale for each project, it ranges from a few thousand tokens to several hundred thousand tokens.
This strategy has also been applied to the construction of the Superchain ecology, making it more attractive among various L2 Stacks solutions. For example, in the fourth round of retrospective public goods fundraising in April of this year, 10 million OP tokens were specifically allocated for on-chain builders to deploy contracts and generate block space demand on Superchain. In August, Optimism announced that it would award 50 million OP tokens to creators and builders of Superchain.
Currently, many Superchain members have received funding. For example, the Optimism Foundation provided 118 million OP tokens to Base over the next six years; the OP Stack-based module DeFi L2 Mode will receive 2 million OP from the Optimism Foundation (then valued at about $5.3 million); the L2 network Ink launched by the US crypto exchange Kraken received 25 million OP tokens in an agreement reached earlier this year, currently valued at about $42.5 million, with tokens being unlocked in batches monthly; the Bitcoin L2 project BOB, as the first Bitcoin-native project integrated into the Superchain ecology, received OP tokens valued at $870,000 from the Optimism Foundation; Mint Blockchain received a strategic investment of 750,000 OP tokens (valued at $1.35 million) from the Optimism Foundation...
Regarding the unlocking rules for these funding tokens, Mint Blockchain co-founder Shier Han revealed to PANews that, "For projects with a smaller scale of token rewards, the OP official often provides direct subsidy support, but at the same time, there are some incentive requirements related to promoting ecological development. When blockchain project parties conduct community rewards, they also formulate corresponding rules, such as ordinary users can directly receive rewards by using ecological applications, while application developer teams need to perform corresponding lock-ups, with a normal lock-up period of one year. According to personnel from the Optimism Foundation, 25 million OP tokens allocated to Ink, of which 5 million are directly used for project development, and another 20 million are released according to the scale of on-chain transaction numbers. Therefore, for projects like Ink with substantial support, OP officials will sign more complex cooperation models such as gambling agreements and examine the contribution of key data such as Gas fees."
Since each OP Chain operates under a standardized revenue-sharing model, these Superchains are required to contribute 2.5% of the total revenue of the on-chain sorter or 15% of the net profit (whichever is higher) to the Optimism Collective; however, currently, the economic benefits are limited.
Superchain Eco statistics indicate that these Superchains have cumulatively contributed approximately 15,800 ETH in revenue (currently valued at over $42 million), with the OP Mainnet contributing the most at over 12,800 ETH (accounting for 80.2%); followed by Base, which brought in approximately 2,878.7 ETH (accounting for 18.6%); other chains contributed less than 0.5% of the revenue. Moreover, from a monthly revenue perspective, the monthly income of the Optimism Collective has shown a declining trend, having decreased nearly 65.9% compared to April of this year. However, with more projects like Unichain and Ink that come with their own traffic joining, the revenue potential for OP Mainnet will further increase.
