Optimism OP price unchanged as network rewards loyal holders with 19M airdropped tokens

Layer-2 network Optimism (OP) has begun distributing 19 million OP tokens, around $26 million, across over 31,000 distinct addresses as part of its third airdrop campaign, according to a Sept. 18 post on its official X (formerly Twitter) account.

Optimism stated that the airdrop rewards users who delegated their tokens to support the protocol’s governance via the Optimism DAO, known as the Collective, between Jan. 20 and July 20.

 

“Optimism is about scaling new coordination mechanisms. Healthy governance is crucial to the success of the Optimistic Vision. Airdrop #3 rewards those who have supported Optimism governance through delegation.”

To qualify, a user must have accumulated at least 18,000 points, calculated by multiplying delegated tokens by the number of days held. This entails having at least 180 OP tokens entrusted for a continuous 100 days during these six months.

Additional rewards are available for participants in at least one on-chain proposal during this timeframe, although the maximum OP token reward per address is capped at 10,000 tokens.

Optimism had previously revealed intent to distribute 19% of its initial governance token supply. Its first airdrop in May 2022 spread over 200 million tokens, while its second airdrop in February allocated nearly 12 million tokens to over 300,000 wallets.

OP price performance

Optimism’s OP price has remained unchanged despite news of the new airdrop. The digital asset is down by 0.94% in the last 24 hours to $1.4021 as of press time, according to CryptoSlate’s data.

 

The transaction volume on the L2 network has ranged between 300,000– 450,000 since falling from an all-time high of nearly 1 million recorded in July, according to Etherscan data.

Meanwhile, Optimism is currently the second largest layer-2 network by the total value of assets locked and has enjoyed much adoption, with other crypto projects, including WorldCoin and Base, building on its stack.