Optimism holds strong as price spikes 50% this week

Optimism (OP) witnessed a 10% price increase and an over 50% rise on the daily and weekly timeframes, respectively.

The spike is underscored by growth in user activity, plus strategic collaborations with Lisk and Gelato, as well as a solid position as the second-largest Ethereum layer-2 network. 

According to recent data compiled by IntoTheBlock, the Optimism L2 blockchain now boasts over 5.9 million addresses with a balance — a substantial 391% increase from January’s 1.2 million. This growth reflects a growing interest in Optimism’s decentralized ecosystem, driven by the Optimism Collective’s experiment in digital democratic governance.

By Dec. 22, the total number of addresses on the Optimism Layer 2 network had reached over 84.9 million, an 843% increase in just three months. A major part of this surge is because Optimism’s third airdrop went smoothly on Sept. 18, with over $26 million worth of OP tokens distributed to 31,870 unique addresses.

Optimism’s positive move is further bolstered by Lisk’s collaboration with Optimism and Gelato, signalling a strategic move from Layer 1 to Ethereum layer-2. This transition involves migrating Lisk’s LSK tokens onto the Ethereum platform, contributing to Optimism’s growing ecosystem.

Simultaneously, the transaction count on the Optimism network has seen a notable spike, indicating increased user activity. This uptick aligns with the heightened competition among layer-2 solutions vying for prominence in the Ethereum ecosystem.

According to L2Beat, Optimism currently has a sizable $5.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), clinching second place among layer 2 networks, dwarfed by only Arbitrum. The OP token price has increased by a decent 45% this week, according to CoinGecko

Optimism holding strong

Optimism came out of Optimism Labs, a startup founded by entrepreneurs Jinglan Wang, Kevin Ho, and Karl Floersch in 2019.

The digital asset did not emerge suddenly into the crypto market without any challenges. Recall that it faced a setback in June 2022 when an attacker stole close to 20 million OP tokens, disrupting the token recovery process involving Wintermute. The incident showed that there could be challenges associated with maintaining security in the crypto realm.

Ethereum Layer 2s demonstrated substantial growth, with solutions like Arbitrum and zkSync providing alternatives for developers seeking cost-effective options on the Ethereum network. These Layer 2 tools alleviate the financial burden on developers associated with building on the mainnet.

JPMorgan expressed optimism for the Ethereum network, pointing to the importance of Sharding in Proto-dank which is scheduled for the first half of 2024. This newly launched upgrade will enhance Ethereum’s scalability and efficiency, benefiting Layer 2 networks including Arbitrum and Optimism