Optimism Foundation dumps $90m of OP tokens in private sale

Optimism Foundation decided to sell 19.5 million OP tokens, which are part of its ‘original working budget of 30% of the initial OP token supply.’

Optimism Foundation, a non-profit organization that oversees the development of ecosystem projects and infrastructure, revealed in a forum post on Mar. 7 that it has entered into a “private token sale” of approximately 19.5 million OP tokens worth around $89.5 million as of press time.

While the organization refused to disclose the terms and purchaser due to the nature of the deal, it noted that the tokens “are subject to a two-year lockup.”

“During the lock-up, the purchaser will be able to delegate the tokens to unaffiliated third parties for participation in governance.”

Optimism Foundation

The foundation announced that the transfers would be executed over the coming days, asserting that these transactions were all part of their planned initiatives. Despite this development, the price of OP tokens remained mainly unaffected at $4.59, showing a marginal increase of approximately 1% according to CoinMarketCap data at the time of reporting.

This isn’t the first time the foundation has engaged in a private sale as in September 2023 the project also sold 116 million OP tokens to seven private buyers. At the time, the Optimism Foundation also refused to provide extensive details about the sale.