Optimism Foundation To Sell 19.5M OP Tokens In Private Sale

Table of Contents

• Optimism Foundation Announces Private Sale
• Community Criticizes Move

The Optimism Foundation has announced the sale of 19.5M OP tokens worth $89 million at current prices to an unknown buyer in a private sale.

Apart from the buyer’s identity, The Optimism Foundation has also not disclosed the terms or the private sale.

Optimism Foundation Announces Private Sale

According to an official announcement posted on the Optimism Foundation website, the tokens will be subject to a two-year lock-up period once the sale is concluded. However, the purchaser will still be able to delegate the tokens to unaffiliated third parties for governance votes. Optimism stated in its announcement,

“Optimism has entered into a private token sale of approximately 19.5M OP tokens. The tokens are subject to a two-year lock-up. During the lock-up, the purchaser will be able to delegate the tokens to unaffiliated third parties for participation in governance.”

According to Optimism, the tokens are from the unallocated portion of the OP token treasury and are a part of the Optimism Foundation’s original working budget. It also stated that several transactions related to the private sale will take place over the next few days.

“The tokens come from the Unallocated portion of the OP Token treasury and are part of the Foundation’s original working budget of 30% of the initial OP token supply. As always, public tracking of OP token supply is available here. Over the next few days, there will be several transactions to send the OP. These are all planned transactions, and we’re sharing a heads-up to keep the community informed. As this was a private sale, the terms and purchaser are not able to be disclosed.”

Community Criticizes Move

This is not the first time the Optimism Foundation has conducted a private sale of OP tokens. In September 2023, it announced the sale of 116 million OP tokens worth over $160 million at the time. Unsurprisingly, the news of the latest token sale was not well-received by the larger Ethereum community, with many taking to X to share their grievances about the move. Founder of the Daily Gwei, Anthony Sassano, shared his opinion on X, stating,

“I love Optimism and what they’re building (and I’m an angel investor in them), but private sales with zero transparency like this just leave a really bad taste in my mouth. This is not the gwei.”

Another user stated,

“@Optimism has sold another 19.5m $OP, a nice little $90m or so to strengthen the treasury. It’s not dumping if it’s a private sale.”

However, despite a barrage of criticism and unfavorable opinions from users and the larger Ethereum community, the OP token had registered a 3% increase over the past 24 hours. However, the token has registered a slight drop and is currently trading at $4.60.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.