On October 9, 2024, Optimism (OP), the layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, announced its 5th airdrop event, distributing 10 million OP tokens valued at approximately $16 million.
The airdrop targeted users interacting with the Optimism Superchain ecosystem between March 15 and September 15, 2024. Eligible participants included those using DeFi applications, gaming platforms, and Web3 social networks across various Superchain networks such as Base, Zora, Mode, and Metal.
🔴 Use the Superchain, and reap the benefits 🔴
Today, @Optimism unveils Airdrop #5:
Onchain together, benefit together.
10M+ OP has been allocated to 54k+ unique addresses.
As of today, roughly 550M OP remains for future airdrops. pic.twitter.com/TCS1oSXKBs
— Optimism (@Optimism) October 9, 2024
Additional criteria for the airdrop included active users who engaged in governance by delegating OP, performed at least 10 transactions over 20 consecutive weeks, used at least 7 Superchain networks, and participated in the ecosystem within the first week of a network’s launch. In total, 10.3 million OP tokens were distributed to 54,723 qualifying wallet addresses.
Optimism has a treasury of 550 million OP tokens, valued at over $850 million, earmarked for future airdrops. Previous airdrops have included larger distributions, such as the 214 million OP tokens in May 2022 and the 10.3 million OP tokens in February 2024. However, despite the similar number of tokens in the 5th and 4th airdrops, the current airdrop’s value in USD is four times lower due to the decline in OP token prices since its peak in March.
Despite increased competition from emerging Ethereum layer-2 solutions like ZKsync, Starknet, and Base, Optimism remains the second-largest Ethereum layer-2 with a total locked value of $5.8 billion. On October 10, 2024, the price of the OP token dropped by 5.7% following a broader cryptocurrency market adjustment.
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