Base to Depart OP Stack, Ends Revenue Share with Optimism

- Under the now-terminated agreement, Base contributed the greater of 2.5% of its total sequencer revenue or 15% of its net on-chain revenue to the Optimism Collective. This amounted to 8,387 ETH, valued at approximately $16.4 million, which represented 41% of the Optimism Collective's total historical revenue. In January 2026 alone, Base's contribution accounted for a staggering 90% of the collective's monthly revenue. - The departure of Base, the largest chain in the Superchain ecosystem with $3.85 billion in total value locked, has led to a significant drop in Optimism's OP token price, which fell by over 20% following the announcement. Despite the price crash, whale wallets holding between 10 million and 1 billion OP tokens accumulated over 60 million OP tokens in the aftermath. - Base is moving to a new, unified in-house technology stack called "base/base". This move is intended to give Base greater control over its development, allowing for an increased pace of six smaller, focused hard forks per year, double its previous rate. The new stack will consolidate all core components into a single codebase, reducing dependencies on external partners like Optimism, Flashbots, and Paradigm. - The "Superchain" thesis, envisioned by Optimism, aims to create a network of interoperable Layer-2 chains built on the OP Stack, sharing a common bridging, governance, and communication layer. Base's departure raises questions about the long-term viability of this model, as other projects may be incentivized to follow suit and pursue their own independent technology stacks. - Despite the separation, Base will continue to work with Optimism as a client of "OP Enterprise: Mission-Critical Support". Jing Wang, CEO of OP Labs, stated that the new "Unified Base Stack" still shares 99% of its code with the OP Stack. - The revenue shared with the Optimism Collective was intended to be used for grants to attract developers to the Superchain ecosystem. A recent proposal suggested that 50% of the Superchain revenue would be allocated to purchasing OP tokens. The loss of Base's significant contribution will impact these initiatives. - The original governance agreement required Base's smart contracts to be upgraded via a two-of-two multisignature wallet, with one signature controlled by Base and the other by the Optimism Foundation, meaning Base could not upgrade without Optimism's consent. The move to an independent stack will grant Base more autonomy over its upgrade and governance processes. - Prior to the departure, to incentivize Base's participation in the Superchain and the revenue-sharing agreement, Base was set to receive 118 million OP tokens, vesting over six years.