The Optimism Foundation, a non-profit organization responsible for overseeing the development of ecosystem projects and infrastructure on the Optimism network, has once again made headlines with a significant private token sale.
TLDR
- Optimism Foundation announced a private token sale of approximately 19.5 million OP tokens, worth nearly $90 million at current prices, to an undisclosed buyer.
- The sold tokens are subject to a two-year lockup, but the buyer can delegate them to unaffiliated third parties for participation in governance decisions.
- The tokens come from the unallocated portion of the OP Token treasury, which is part of the foundation’s original working budget of 30% of the initial OP token supply.
- The Optimism Foundation has engaged in a similar private sale in September 2023, selling 116 million OP tokens to seven private buyers.
- Despite the private sale, the price of OP tokens remained largely unaffected, showing a marginal increase of approximately 1%.
In a forum post on March 7, 2024, the foundation revealed that it had entered into a private transaction, selling approximately 19.5 million OP tokens worth around $89.5 million at current market prices.
The identity of the buyer and the specific terms of the deal were not disclosed due to the private nature of the transaction.
However, the foundation did confirm that the sold tokens are subject to a two-year lockup period, during which the purchaser will be able to delegate the tokens to unaffiliated third parties for participation in governance decisions.
Starting today and over the coming days, there will be several transactions from Optimism controlled wallets totaling approximately 25M OP tokens. We’re sharing as a heads up to our community that these are planned transactions.
— Optimism (@Optimism) March 7, 2024
This arrangement effectively grants the buyer the same benefits as an unvested token holder.
The Optimism Foundation emphasized that the sold tokens were sourced from the unallocated portion of the OP Token treasury, which forms part of the foundation’s original working budget of 30% of the initial OP token supply.
The foundation assured the community that the transfer of these tokens would be executed over the coming days and that the transactions were all part of their planned initiatives.
Interestingly, this is not the first time the Optimism Foundation has engaged in a private token sale.
In September 2023, the project sold 116 million OP tokens to seven private buyers, although the foundation refrained from providing extensive details about that sale as well.
Despite the significant private token sale, the price of OP tokens remained largely unaffected, displaying only a marginal increase of approximately 1% according to CoinMarketCap data at the time of reporting.
This relative price stability suggests that the market had either anticipated such a move or that the lockup period and the foundation’s assurances have mitigated any potential negative impact on investor sentiment.
As the Optimism network continues to develop and expand its ecosystem, the foundation’s private token sales may serve as a means to secure additional funding for ongoing projects and initiatives.
However, the lack of transparency surrounding these transactions may raise questions among some community members who advocate for greater openness and accountability in the crypto space.
