Coinbase Walks Away - OP Pays the Price

The OP token has dropped nearly 25% in just 24 hours - all because Coinbase announced it would no longer use the Optimism Superchain for its Base network.

What does such a sharp move actually mean? One of two things:

• either this is an irrational panic sell-off,
• or the market had been pricing in the idea that OP would eventually become the unified governance token for a network of interconnected L2s that included Base.

I find the second explanation hard to believe.

OP already works perfectly well as a governance token within Optimism itself: holders vote on how funds are allocated, define and update the rules, influence infrastructure development, and can even remove directors of the Optimism Foundation. But it’s hard to imagine anyone seriously expecting OP holders to gain similar powers over the corporate infrastructure of the largest U.S. crypto exchange.

And if they did expect that - well, that expectation was clearly misplaced. Hence today’s brutal disappointment and the wave of sell-offs.

In any case, this is ultimately positive for OP. If the market really attributed as much as 25% of its value to the connection with Base, that’s an unhealthy level of dependence on a single external project. Reducing that dependency is a good thing.

So if you want to take advantage of the situation and swap into OP while it’s trading at a discount - you’re welcome at rabbit.io. There are no limits, so you can exchange enough to gain a meaningful stake in Optimism governance.