Base Sends Optimism to the Bottom: Transition to Independent Stack and $OP Drop

In the world of cryptocurrency, a significant shift has occurred: Base, the popular Layer-2 network from Coinbase, has announced its transition from the OP Stack to its own independent stack. This decision, announced yesterday in the Base blog, has already led to a sharp drop in the Optimism token ($OP) and sparked discussions about the future of the Optimism Superchain ecosystem.

Details of the Base Announcement

According to the official post in the Base blog, the transition is motivated by a desire to accelerate innovation, scaling, and decentralization. Key reasons include:

• Increasing the pace of updates: aiming for six hard forks per year, which is twice as fast as current rates.
• Reducing complexity: consolidating dependencies into a single repository (base/base), based on open components like Reth.
• Accelerating key changes, such as BAL (Batch Auction Layer), ahead of Ethereum L1.

The transition does not require immediate actions from users or node operators. In the coming months, nodes should migrate to the Base client for future updates. Base will remain an OP Enterprise client for support during the transition but will no longer follow Optimism releases. This will maintain compatibility with OP Stack standards but enhance Base's autonomy.

Base remains a Stage 1 rollup, will add an independent signer to the Base Security Council, and accelerate milestones like fast withdrawals. With a TVL of $3.85 billion, Base is one of the largest players in the ecosystem, and this move underscores its dominance.

Impact on Optimism and the $OP Drop

Following the announcement, the $OP token fell by approximately 19-23%, as indicated in your message and confirmed by multiple sources. According to CoinGecko data, the OP price dropped to $0.1436, reflecting a 23.4% decline over 24 hours. Other reports note drops ranging from 4% to 20%.

The reason is the loss of a key revenue source. Base contributed the largest share of revenue to Optimism among all L2s on the OP Stack, as shown in your Dune dashboard and confirmed by ecosystem analysis. With Base's departure, which generated significant L1 activity, Optimism will need to find new "cash cows", possibly focusing on other networks like Worldcoin or Unichain.

Community reactions are mixed: some see risks of fragmentation and reduced interoperability, while others view it as an opportunity for innovation. On X, posts confirm the trend: "Base will transition away from the OP Stack" and "OP price drops over 20%".

What's Next?

For Optimism, this is a challenge: the network will lose contributions from its largest client but may strengthen partnerships with the remaining ones. Base, in turn, is aiming for greater independence, which could attract developers.