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Optimism builds Ethereum scaling solutions. Its main product, OP Mainnet, is an Ethereum Layer 2 chain that runs on top of Ethereum to speed up transactions and lower gas fees while staying compatible with existing Ethereum software. The company also pursues the Superchain concept to connect multiple Layer 2s using the OP Stack, improving interoperability and coordination across chains. It funds ecosystem development through Retroactive Public Goods Funding, using fees from OP Mainnet to support public-good projects and sustain a developer-friendly Ethereum ecosystem.
Industries
Data & Analytics
Enterprise Software
Crypto & Web3
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$178.5M
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
2019
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Total Funding
$178.5M
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Optimism plans to release approximately 343 million OP tokens over the next 12 months, whilst its buyback programme has only repurchased 9 million tokens. This represents one token bought for every 38 released. The Year 5 outlook, covering May 2026 to April 2027, shows discrepancies in reported figures. The Ecosystem Fund will supply 200 million OP, with early contributors and investors adding 47.6 million and 15.3 million respectively. Revenue supporting buybacks is declining following Coinbase's Base network departure from the OP Stack in February. OP traded near its record low at $0.0867 on Thursday, down 98% from its March 2024 peak of $4.84. Optimism has suspended user airdrops and paused Retro Funding after Season 7.
Weekly project updates: Ethereum Institutional Privacy Firm Launches, Robinhood Chain ecosystem booms, Base undergoes strategic pivot, etc. Jul 18, 2026 06:37 1. Ethereum Institutional Privacy Firm EthSystems Officially Launches, Backed by BitMine, SharpLink and Other Institutions link Institutional-grade Ethereum privacy technology firm EthSystems officially launched with initial backing from listed Ethereum treasury company BitMine, SharpLink, SNZ Holding, as well as Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Consensys. Founded by the former Institutional Privacy Working Group team from the Ethereum Foundation, EthSystems develops privacy and compliance systems for regulated entities including banks and asset managers. These solutions enable institutional transactions on Ethereum while safeguarding sensitive data such as transaction details and client identities. 2. Optimism Partners With Dunamu, Toss & DB Securities to Expand South Korean Ecosystem link Ethereum Layer 2 infrastructure project Optimism will expand its presence in South Korea through partnerships with Dunamu, operator of Upbit, fintech platform Toss and DB Securities. The collaboration covers upgrading and globalizing Dunamu's blockchain GIWA, validating digital financial infrastructure denominated in South Korean won, and commercializing Jeju Island smart agriculture, livestock assets and Korean intellectual property in the form of tokenized securities and real-world assets (RWA). 3. Robinhood Chain Hits Second Place in Developer Activity Only 14 Days Post Mainnet Launch link Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of Alchemy, posted that developer activity on Robinhood Chain has risen to second place across the crypto ecosystem within 14 days of launch, trailing only Ethereum. Base, Polygon and BNB Chain rank third to fifth respectively. Per data shared by @tomwanhh, cumulative fee revenue generated on Robinhood Chain has surpassed $1 million just two weeks post-launch. The network is currently booming with its meme coin ecosystem led by Cash Cat and launchpad applications. 4. Base Founder Jesse Pollak Abandons Social & Content Token Strategy, Shifts Focus to Trading, Payments & AI Agents link Jesse Pollak, founder of Base, posted that Q1 2026 was a major challenge for Base. Misjudgments in past bets on social products and content tokens left Base behind competitors in key sectors such as perpetual contracts, prediction markets, tokenization and payments. Pollak said he has refocused on building blockchain infrastructure, arguing the crypto industry does not need social scenarios to achieve mass growth, and financial applications including stablecoins, prediction markets, perpetual contracts and tokenization are sufficient to drive user onboarding. The Base App has been returned to Coinbase for management with Cobie in charge of its follow-up development. Pollak will focus on building Base into global financial infrastructure and prioritize three major verticals of trading, payments and AI Agents in 2026, including support for tokenized equities, stablecoin payments and on-chain economic activities tailored for AI. 5. Starknet Rolls Out STRK20 Compliant Privacy Framework for ERC-20 Assets link Ethereum Layer 2 network Starknet announced the launch of its privacy framework STRK20, enabling users to apply privacy processing to any assets, with developers able to integrate via SDKs and wallet APIs. Users must undergo screening before entering privacy pools, where all activities remain encrypted. Information about specified users, transfers or timeframes will only be disclosed upon receipt of valid legal requests following independent assessments. Starknet stated this mechanism facilitates fund source audits and investigations into stolen assets while preventing exposure of data belonging to unrelated users. 6. PumpFun Completes First Team Token Unlock, Distributing $86.49M Worth of Tokens Across 121 Wallets link The one-year lock-up period for team and investor tokens of Pumpfun has expired, kicking off a three-year vesting cycle. Pumpfun completed the first unlock of team and investor tokens early this morning, with a total of 57.279 billion PUMP tokens worth approximately $86.49 million unlocked, transferred and distributed to 121 wallets. 7. Polygon Labs Conducts Staff Layoffs and Moves Forward With Acquisition of Coinme link Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, posted that the company is in the final stage of acquiring Coinme and will integrate its team. To achieve profitability by 2027, Polygon Labs is transforming from a blockchain foundation into a blockchain payment firm, a strategic shift accompanied by layoffs. Marc Boiron stated the organizational restructuring aligns with the company's business pivot from a foundation to a payment enterprise rather than stemming from the performance of laid-off staff. Despite steady revenue growth and record-high stablecoin trading volumes, the firm must optimize its workforce for long-term sustainable growth. Additionally, Polygon Labs emphasized it will offer severance packages and career referral support to affected employees. 8. Alleged Price Manipulation Detected on Polymarket's 5-Minute Bitcoin Prediction Market link Researchers from Stanford University and Singapore Management University released a working paper pointing to suspected manipulation in Polymarket's popular five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets. After analyzing roughly two months of trading data, the study found certain traders place concentrated one-sided orders on Binance in the final seconds before contract settlement, temporarily shifting the BTC price used for settlement in their favor to profit from bets on the same direction. 9. Symbiotic Unveils Core V2, Shifting Focus From Restaking to Universal Collateral Marketplace link Restaking protocol Symbiotic announced the launch of Core V2, extending its shared collateral mechanism to scenarios including insurance, on-chain credit and RWAs. Core V2 allows the same collateral asset to back multiple financial obligations simultaneously and be deployed to protocols such as Aave and Morpho during idle periods to generate extra yields. Symbiotic stated the upgrade aims to build on-chain Collateral Markets, boost capital efficiency and drive institutional capital into on-chain finance. Symbiotic secured a $5.8 million seed round led by Paradigm in 2024 and closed a $29 million financing round led by Pantera Capital in 2025. 10. Dune Analytics: Low Utilization of Concentrated Liquidity Causes Around $150M Annual Fee Losses Across DeFi link On-chain analytics platform Dune released a research report showing roughly 85% of concentrated liquidity across DeFi protocols remains underutilized at any given time. The study analyzed around 200 active pools on protocols including Uniswap v3/v4, PancakeSwap v3 and Aerodrome, covering approximately $1.84 billion in weekly liquidity, of which about $1.6 billion sat idle. The report estimated liquidity providers with out-of-range positions lose $150 million in annual fee revenue, and over one-third of idle capital has not been adjusted in more than 90 days. Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch, commented that structural inefficiencies in DeFi cost liquidity providers billions in capital utilization and millions in trading fees. Dune's data further indicated idle capital is mostly held by individual wallets rather than trading bots, and despite new features such as Hooks introduced in Uniswap v4, the core issue of underused liquidity remains unresolved.
Toss and Optimism launch Korean won stablecoin pilot with 3-party team. Verified 11 votes Updated 2 hours ago South Korea's fintech giant Toss is running a stablecoin trial. The company has teamed up with Optimism and Sunnyside Labs to test a digital currency pegged to the Korean won, with the goal of figuring out whether it can actually work as a payment tool in the real world. The three-party proof of concept is pretty much what it sounds like - a structured test, not a live product. Toss wants to know if a won-denominated stablecoin can slot into existing payment infrastructure without breaking things. Can it process transactions fast enough? Is it secure? Does it scale? Those are the questions the pilot is designed to answer, and none of them are simple. Stablecoins pegged to national currencies carry their own set of technical headaches, especially when you're trying to maintain a tight peg under real transaction loads. Sunnyside Labs is in the mix to bring additional technical muscle to the development and testing phases, while Optimism handles the blockchain layer - the infrastructure backbone that will carry the actual transaction data. Optimism's role here is critical. Why Optimism and why now. Optimism built its name on scalable blockchain infrastructure. Its technology is designed to handle high transaction volumes without the congestion and cost spikes that plagued earlier networks. For a stablecoin pilot aimed at everyday payments - not speculative trading - that kind of throughput capacity matters enormously. If the network chokes under realistic payment volumes, the whole concept falls apart before regulators even get a look at it. Discover more Business News Brokerages & Day Trading Finance News And regulators will get a look. The project's future isn't just a technical question. Final approval and broader adoption depend on regulatory reviews, and South Korea's financial authorities have been watching the digital currency space carefully. The pilot's findings will feed directly into whatever case Toss makes to those authorities down the line. That's probably why the proof of concept is structured the way it is - security assessments, user experience trials, scalability checks. It's basically building the compliance dossier at the same time as the product. Stablecoin adoption across Asia has grown sharply in recent years, and South Korea is no exception. The country has a dense, tech-savvy population with high smartphone penetration and a payments market that moves fast. Toss itself is already one of the dominant fintech players in the country, with a massive user base that could theoretically provide a ready-made distribution channel if the stablecoin ever graduates from pilot to product. That's a big if, but it's not an unreasonable one. What the pilot actually tests. The proof of concept covers a few distinct areas. Transaction speed is one. Security measures are another. Scalability - can the system hold up as volumes grow - is the third major variable. User experience trials will also run alongside the technical assessments, because a stablecoin that works perfectly on paper but confuses or frustrates actual users won't get traction in a competitive payments market. Price stability is kind of the whole point of anchoring the coin to the won. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, a won-pegged stablecoin doesn't swing 10% in an afternoon. That predictability is what makes it interesting to businesses and consumers who need to know what their money is worth when a transaction settles. Volatility kills payment utility. Stablecoins solve that - at least in theory - and that's why Toss is betting time and resources on figuring out whether the theory holds in practice. Sunnyside Labs' involvement brings depth to the development side. The collaboration pairs Optimism's infrastructure expertise with Sunnyside's technical support, which seems like a deliberate choice to cover both the blockchain layer and the application layer simultaneously. No details on the exact division of responsibilities, though. The source didn't specify. Merchant Services & Payment Systems The broader implications are real. If the proof of concept produces strong results, it won't just affect Toss. Other fintech firms in South Korea - and probably elsewhere in the region - will be watching closely. A successful won-pegged stablecoin pilot could push competitors to explore similar projects, and it could accelerate regulatory conversations that are already happening in Seoul. But it's not there yet. The pilot is still a pilot. Wider adoption remains contingent on what the tests actually show and how regulators respond to the findings. There's no launch date. There's no guarantee the stablecoin ever leaves the proof-of-concept phase. The collaboration's outcome will shape South Korea's payment landscape only if the numbers hold up - and only if the regulators agree. Optimism's infrastructure will handle the stablecoin's real-world transaction volumes during the trial. Frequently asked questions. What is Toss testing with its Korean won stablecoin pilot? What is Optimism's role in the Toss stablecoin project? Community Trust Index Moderate Confidence Real91% 9%Fake 11 community signals Post Views: 10 Evie Vavasseur is a crypto writer and digital content specialist covering the latest developments in blockchain technology, decentralized finance, and the broader digital asset ecosystem. With a keen eye for emerging trends, Evie provides accessible and insightful coverage of cryptocurrency markets, NFTs, and Web3 innovations for The Currency Analytics. Currencies & Foreign Exchange
Optimism introduces Covered Vaults - what this means for institutions. June 30th, 2026 Optimism's Covered Vaults enhance risk management in DeFi, helping institutions allocate capital effectively. Here's why this matters. Quick take. Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed. * Optimism introduces Covered Vaults to improve risk management in DeFi. * The initiative aims to help institutions utilize capital without unaddressed risks. * This move highlights growing integration of traditional finance with blockchain. Sponsored: Coinfomania - Get your ad in the spotlight. Book your slot! The Optimism Foundation recently announced the launch of Covered Vaults, a new initiative aimed at integrating risk transfer into decentralized finance (DeFi). This development enables institutions to effectively allocate capital while addressing potential tail risks in their investments, as detailed in their recent tweet. You can view the announcement here. What went down. The introduction of Covered Vaults arrives at a time when the broader crypto market is experiencing mixed signals, with major assets showing varying momentum. Optimism's initiative could significantly enhance the way institutions engage with DeFi, particularly in managing risks associated with capital allocation. By providing a structured approach to risk transfer, Covered Vaults may attract more institutional players into the DeFi space, which has traditionally been cautious due to its inherent risks. This could lead to a more robust ecosystem and increase liquidity for various DeFi protocols. Price action breakdown. Currently, Optimism's trading volume remains at $0, with no recent price fluctuations reported, indicating a cautious market sentiment. Nonetheless, the announcement of Covered Vaults could serve as a catalyst for future activity as institutions seek innovative solutions for risk management. The broader implications of this initiative may encourage more traditional financial players to explore opportunities in blockchain, potentially leading to an uptick in market engagement. Optimism is at the forefront of integrating traditional financial principles into blockchain technology. Its recent developments reflect a broader trend of traditional assets finding new homes on decentralized platforms. Historically, DeFi has faced scrutiny regarding risk management, making this initiative particularly relevant in today's evolving financial landscape. Where do Coinfomania LLC go from here. As traders digest the implications of Covered Vaults, they should keep an eye on how this initiative influences institutional participation in DeFi. The success of this model could lead to increased demand for similar innovations across the blockchain space. Additionally, with the global financial system rapidly evolving, institutions may adapt their strategies to leverage these new tools, impacting overall market dynamics significantly. Contributors: Coinfomania News Room Followed by top voices in crypto Follow Coinfomania LLC on google News. Get the latest crypto insights and updates.
Ronin migrates to Ethereum Layer 2, introduces new proof-of-distribution model. May 14, 2026 9:00 AM Table of contents Ronin has officially completed its migration to Ethereum, marking one of the biggest upgrades in the network's history. Its blockchain was originally created as a separate Ethereum sidechain for Axie Infinity, now a Layer 2 solution as part of the Ethereum ecosystem. The move is actually a "homecoming" from Ronin to Ethereum and was announced directly from the Ronin team. The project says the migration enables Ronin to retain its gaming-centric infrastructure and leverage Ethereum's security, scalability, and expanding Layer 2 infrastructure. The network will remain the same as before for users, but with improved security assurances and faster transactions based on Ethereum technology, said Ronin. Ronin integrates with OP Stack ecosystem. Additionally, the migration also puts it within the OP Stack ecosystem. The network announced its partnerships with multiple infrastructure providers, such as Optimism, Conduit, Boundless, and EigenDA. Instead of the old model in which the chain was responsible for most of Ethereum's security and transaction processing, it is now part of the operational engine, said Ronin. The team added that further enhancements will supplement ZK fraud proofs via Boundless Kailua, help increase finality speeds and general capital efficiency. It illustrates how gaming chains are increasingly integrating Ethereum L2, while preserving their own ecosystems, apps, and experiences. Massive reduction in RON inflation. The migration will focus on the tokenomics of Ronin's updated model, which is one of the most crucial elements. The network discovered that prior estimates have been made for RON emissions, which were around 45 million RON per year. Since the migration was done, emissions have been lowered to 5 million RON per year. The change is 9x lower than the emissions and the lowest inflation rate in the history of Ronin. The reduced supply growth is expected to make the RON token's long-term value proposition stronger and could lead to a more sustainable ecosystem, says Ronin. The network will be replacing passive staking rewards with a new "Proof of Distribution" incentive structure. A game-based system, where rewards are likely to be focused on builders and projects in direct support of the ecosystem's growth. Developers who generate value by engaging in the game, application, and ecosystem will see larger allocations in the reward pool, said Ronin. Switching was a merit-based process with the aim of incentivizing network growth, the team said. Treasury revenue streams receive major upgrade. There are also some new revenue streams for the Ronin Treasury due to the migration. The team claims the treasury has millions of digital assets in RON, but previous models failed to demonstrate a correlation between activities in the ecosystem and treasury growth. With the latest design, now the treasury will receive the remaining 90 million RON, previously designated for staking rewards. The platform will additionally take in gas fee revenue after expenses and blob fees from its net sequencers. In addition, the network raised the Ronin Marketplace treasury fees from 0.5% to 1.25%, a 2.5x increase in the amount of the marketplace-related revenue generation. The changes would be expected to make the ecosystem more sustainable in the long term, and to increase the compounding of the value that ecosystems deliver to the treasury and to the users of that value. Ronin continues expanding web3 gaming ecosystem. Ronin is still one of the most popular blockchain gaming ecosystems in the crypto market. The network began by being the home for Axie Infinity but has since seen games like Pixels, Wild Forest, Craft World, Cambria and Fableborne gain popularity as well. Ronin pointed out that the entertainment market around the globe has become an annual industry of over $200 billion today. Even though the blockchain gaming space has amassed about $4.2 billion in revenue from Axie Infinity over the years, the project sees this adoption standing in its infancy. Ronin's target is still the same: to take millions of gamers onchain via more seamless onboarding, reduced transaction fees, and gaming-focused infrastructure, the team said.
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Industries
Data & Analytics
Enterprise Software
Crypto & Web3
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$178.5M
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
2019
Find jobs on Simplify and start your career today