Author: Nancy, PANews
In recent months, an increasing number of crypto projects have entered the L2 track, with the OP Stack technology solution frequently appearing, especially with the addition of some star-level projects, drawing significant market attention to OP Mainnet (Optimism). As the OP Stack ecosystem expands rapidly, the scale and activity of the Superchain ecosystem have also significantly improved, which cannot be separated from the generous subsidy policy of OP Mainnet. However, currently, the majority of the income contributed by Superchains still seems relatively limited, relying primarily on the Base chain under Coinbase.
Nearly half of Ethereum L2s are based on OP Stack, with Superchain's daily transaction volume accounting for over 40% of the market.
Coinbase launches the Ethereum L2 network Base based on OP Stack; Worldcoin announces the launch of the blockchain World Chain based on OP Stack and joins the Superchain; Uniswap launches its own Layer2 network Unichain built on OP Stack technology; Sony's Layer2 blockchain Soneium uses the OP Stack codebase... In recent months, OP Stack has seen 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. According to L2BEAT data, as of October 31, the number of Ethereum Layer2s has reached 111. Superchain Eco statistics show that 59 of these L2s are built on OP Stack, far exceeding other competitors such as L2 projects using Arbitrum One (31 projects) and Polygon (only 8 projects).
Moreover, L2 projects running on OP Stack have significant impact. According to L2BEAT statistics, among the top ten Ethereum L2 projects by TVL, six L2 projects use OP Stack as their technical solution, especially Base, which firmly ranks second with $8.17 billion.
While OP Stack continues to make strides, the ecosystem of Superchain is also expanding, which is an important weapon for OP Mainnet to address the fragmentation of the L2 ecosystem. According to Superchain Eco statistics, as of October 31, there are 36 OP Chains that have joined the Superchain ecosystem, with daily transaction volumes reaching 7.6 million (an increase of 23.7% from last month), accounting for 43.1% of the L2 market.
Additionally, DeFiLlama data shows that the TVL of OP Chain on Superchain has exceeded $3.67 billion. Among them, Base ranks first with a scale of $2.65 billion, accounting for 72.1%; followed by OP Mainnet with a TVL of $670 million, making up 18.4%; Mode closely follows with a TVL of over $230 million, accounting for nearly 6.4%. In contrast, the TVL of other projects is mostly below $100 million, with some projects having only a few thousand dollars.
Big investments to subsidize Superchain, with over $42 million in revenue mainly relying on contributions from Base.
The rapid development of the OP Mainnet ecosystem is largely due to its generous funding subsidy strategy. This 'sprinkling tokens' 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 ecosystem.
According to official documents, the Optimism Collective primarily supports builders through two types of funding: Retro Funding for public goods and Mission Grants. Official data shows that since 2022, the Optimism Collective has distributed over 60.81 million OP tokens in multiple rounds of Retro Funding, and has reserved 800 million OP tokens for future rounds of rewards. The scale of funding for each project ranges from a few thousand tokens to several hundred thousand tokens.
This strategy is also applied to the construction of the Superchain ecosystem, making it more attractive among many L2 Stack solutions. For example, in the fourth round of retroactive public goods funding in April this year, 10 million OP tokens were specifically allocated for on-chain builders deploying contracts on Superchain and generating block space demand. In August, Optimism announced that 50 million OP tokens were awarded to creators and builders of Superchain.
Currently, many Superchain members have received funding. For example, the Optimism Foundation provides 11.8 million OP tokens to Base over the next six years; the DeFi L2 Mode based on OP Stack will receive 2 million OP tokens from the Optimism Foundation (valued at about $5.3 million at the time); the L2 network Ink launched by US crypto exchange Kraken received a funding of 25 million OP tokens in an agreement reached earlier this year, now valued at about $42.5 million, with tokens being unlocked in batches monthly; Bitcoin L2 project BOB, as the first Bitcoin-native project integrated into the Superchain ecosystem, received OP tokens worth $870,000 from the Optimism Foundation; Mint Blockchain received a strategic investment of 750,000 OP tokens (valued at $1.35 million)...
Regarding the unlocking rules for these funding tokens, Mint Blockchain co-founder Shier Han revealed to PANews that 'for projects with a smaller token reward scale, OP officials often provide direct subsidy support but also attach some incentive requirements for promoting ecosystem development. When blockchain project parties provide community rewards, they will also formulate corresponding rules, such as ordinary users can earn rewards by using ecosystem applications, while application developer teams need to lock tokens accordingly, with a normal lock-up period of one year. According to personnel from the Optimism Foundation, the 25 million OP tokens allocated to Ink, of which 5 million are directly used for project development, while the remaining 20 million will be released based on the scale of on-chain transaction volumes. Therefore, for projects like Ink that receive substantial support, OP officials will sign more complex cooperation models such as wager agreements and examine the contributions 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 on-chain revenue or 15% of pure profit (whichever is higher) to the Optimism Collective, but currently, the economic benefits seem limited.
Superchain Eco statistics show 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 bringing in approximately 2,878.7 ETH (accounting for 18.6%); other chains contribute less than 0.5%. From a monthly revenue perspective, the monthly income of the Optimism Collective shows a downward trend, having dropped nearly 65.9% from April of this year. However, with more self-traffic projects like Unichain and Ink joining, the revenue potential of OP Mainnet will further increase.
