OP Mainnet, an Optimistic Rollup Layer‑2 built on the OP Stack, lost its largest revenue contributor in February 2026. The exit forced governance changes and technical adjustments to support the Superchain economy.

Network background

OP Mainnet launched in 2021 by the Optimism Foundation as the first major L2 on Ethereum and creator of the open OP Stack framework. The Superchain model pooled revenue across participating chains to fund shared development and incentives.

Key metrics

Token price stands near $0.10 with an ATH of $4.85 and an ATL near $0.40, reflecting a -98% decline from the peak. Network and economic indicators include TVL of $363 M, bridged TVL $1.18 B, and stablecoin volume about $588 M.

Daily DEX volume is near $16.88 M, perpetuals volume about $228, chain fees $1.87 K, app revenue $53.5 K and app fees $139 K.

Base departure and immediate impact

On 18.02.2026, Base announced its migration from OP Stack to a proprietary stack, triggering a roughly 26% drop in the token price. Base had contributed approximately 97% of Superchain revenue, creating a large shortfall for the Optimism Collective.

«This is a hit to short‑term revenue. But we have long needed to evolve the business model.»

Governance and technical responses

Following the exit, governance approved a buyback program directing 50% of Superchain revenue to monthly OTC purchases of $OP, with 84% support in the vote. Optimism also integrated ZK proofs via a Succinct partnership to enable faster withdrawals from L2 to L1 and reduce Optimistic Rollup UX frictions.

The project introduced a B2B product, OP Enterprise, offering managed L2 infrastructure for corporations, retaining Base as a paid enterprise client despite its stack migration. EtherFi announced migration of cash accounts and a card program with $160 M TVL and 70,000 active cards to OP Mainnet.

Scale, challenges and outlook

By late 2025 the Superchain included 34 active OP Chains and reached a combined TVL of $5.9 B, processing 3.6 B transactions in the second half of 2025, a +44% increase over six months. Yet TVL on OP Mainnet has fallen from over $5 B to $363 M, and daily chain fees remain low.

Team vesting persists and selling pressure remains a concern. Annual buybacks near $8 M appear limited against current emission dynamics. Sentiment is cautious as the ecosystem adapts to the loss of its largest revenue source.