Late Vote Flips Optimism's Airdrop Pot into an Enterprise Fund

The vote signals the end, at least for now, of the airdrop era at one of the largest Layer 2 ecosystems, giving the foundation behind the protocol control over 12.5% of the OP token total supply.  An airdrop is a distribution of tokens to users, typically used by crypto projects to reward early participants, attract new users and broaden ownership of a network. With the proposal's approval, the capital once reserved to reward community members will now be allocated towards strategies aimed at attracting larger institutional participants.  

Some delegates pushed back, saying that tokens setting aside for future airdrops had created the now-dashed expectation that they would eventually be distributed to users. A Delegate that cast 137,400 OP ($13,228) against the proposal, argued the pool had been used "like a carrot on a string dangling it in front of users."

The Foundation's shift to institutions reflects a broader trend across the industry, which has been transitioning from a community of crypto natives backing projects they believed could reshape finance - and perhaps rewarding them along the way - towards one centred on institutional adoption and helping traditional financial firms build more profitable businesses.

The proposal was on course to fail for most of its six-day voting window, only passing after a delegate cast 8.5mn OP tokens ($796,790) in favour in the final minutes. The address belongs to Sunnyside Labs, one of Optimism's core development teams, which builds infrastructure for the OP Stack open source software used to power OP Mainnet and other Ethereum Layer 2 blockchains.

The voting timeline showed the proposal at 9.2mn OP in favour and 10.9mn against before the final ballots were cast. The vote ultimately swung to 18mn OP in favour and 11mn against, giving the proposal 62% approval.

Despite opposition to the proposal, the price of Optimism's native token, which had fallen more than 87% over the past year, rose on the news, up 8.6% over the previous 24 hours, to trade at nine cents at 19:36UTC. 

Strategic fund

The proposal focused on an academic analyses of airdrops that evaluated whether it lifted governance engagement or user retention. 

Referencing two papers, the proposal stated that airdrops "were built for an earlier phase of the [Optimism] Collective's growth, centered on broad based user acquisition." However, that approach no longer reflected Optimism's broader strategy, which has shifted towards a more institutional focus. 

The tokens would now be used to support partnerships between Optimism and other chains, institutions and agreements with "top-tier brands." The proposal argued the move could create incentives that would "deepen on chain activity and liquidity of the OP Mainnet." 

Delegates split on scope

Comments beneath the proposal were largely opposed to moving the tokens into a separate fund, with much of the community's criticism focused on what participants described as a lack of clarity over how the new allocation would be deployed.

A delegate that cast 4.0mn OP ($345,000) against the proposal said it had not done enough to justify the size of the allocation, calling for more clarity on how it would be used. Another delegate said that "appropriating" 24% of circulating supply or 12.5% of total supply "with vague handwaving is unacceptable," calling instead for a separate proposal to be submitted for each deal.

Another pointed out that the ecosystem already had another fund earmarked for similar development to that outlined in the proposal, holding 686mn OP ($66mn), more than double the amount distributed through airdrops.

A perceived advantage

Sunnyside Labs, the team that cast the final deciding vote, joined the collective as a core development unit in 2023 , receiving a 5m OP ($478,600) vesting over four years. In July 2026, the team signed a memorandum with Optimism and South Korean fintech Toss for a three-month proof-of-concept on a won-pegged stablecoin.

Sunnyside's comment accompanying the deciding vote stated that the fund could give Optimism a competitive advantage for future development. "Winning an enterprise deal is hard. Tokens are usually part of the deal, and the bidding is competitive," the team wrote. 

The company also defended keeping deal-level terms confidential, despite calls for transparency. "We think exact numbers, for example allocation per deal, are exactly what we shouldn't want disclosed as competitors could just match them." While its vote pushed the proposal over the line, Sunnyside asked the Foundation to publish aggregate figures on how the fund was deployed and what outcomes it produced.

The approval vote stands and the proposal now waits for execution, despite community's reservations.