Optimism, one of Ethereum’s (ETH) leading layer 2s in terms of total locked value (TVL), has announced the distribution of all remaining OP tokens not distributed in its first airdrop. With that out of the way, Optimism said its developers would be able to focus on “future airdrops”.
Optimism distributes the remaining OP tokens from its first airdrop
Optimism (OP), the second largest Ethereum layer 2 in terms of total locked value (TVL), has announced that it has distributed all remaining OP tokens not distributed in its first airdrop.
The OP is Optimism’s native token and is used to pay transaction fees or to participate in the layer 2 decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). To find out more about Optimism and how it works, please read our dedicated fact sheet.
According to Optimism’s press release, the individuals concerned should have received the OP tokens in question directly to their address:
Announcement
The remainder of unclaimed OP from Airdrop 1, but you haven’t claimed your tokens yet, you will receive OP directly at your address.
– Optimism Governance (@OptimismGov) September 15, 2023
” The remaining unclaimed POs from Airdrop 1, but have not yet claimed your tokens, you will receive these POs directly to your address. “
According to the same Optimism press release, 48 million OP tokens have been distributed to 88,000 unique addresses. At the current OP token price, this represents $65.7 million.
If you think you’re one of those eligible for this first airdrop and hadn’t claimed your OP tokens at the time, the cryptocurrency should already be visible in your wallet.
Future airdrops are expected
A thorn in the side in point for Optimism developers: the concern of remaining OP tokens due to the first airdrop has been resolved. As stated in the press release, this will allow the layer 2 teams to focus on “work on smart contracts” and “future airdrops”.
OP mainnet is currently the second largest layer 2 in terms of total locked value (TVL) ahead of its main rival Arbitrum, which also operates on the basis of Optimistic Rollup technology.
According to Dune data, Optimism has gradually gained ground on Arbitrum in terms of daily transactions in recent months. Around August, the number of transactions on the 2 layers 2 even merged, although Arbitrum has since regained the lead.
Number of daily trades on OP Mainnet (red) and Arbitrum (blue)
Optimism’s surge in network usage is mirrored in the number of active users. According to DefiLlama’s data, Optimism has also seen a considerable gain in this metric compared with Arbitrum:
Number of active addresses on Optimism (blue) and on Arbitrum (pink)
Last but not least, it appears that the market capitalisation of the OP token exceeded that of the ARB token for the very first time a few days ago:
Market capitalisation of the OP token (red) and the ARB token (blue)
