According to ChainCatcher, OP Labs, the infrastructure developer behind Optimism, announced the layoff of 20 employees, approximately 19.6% of the total team. Jing Wang, co-founder of Optimism and CEO of OP Labs, stated in an internal memo that the layoffs were not due to financial pressure; the company currently has sufficient funds and years of cash reserves, and this move aims to "streamline operations, accelerate decision-making, and reduce collaboration costs."
Optimism is currently undergoing a transformation. Last month, Base, the largest chain in the OP Stack ecosystem, announced a shift to its self-developed unified technology stack. This change sparked concerns about Optimism's long-term sustainability, causing the OP token price to fall by approximately 37% in the past 30 days. Despite these challenges, OP Labs has developed a 2026 roadmap focusing on faster block times, native interoperability, custom compliance controls, and a zero-knowledge proof (ZK Proof) system aligned with the Ethereum roadmap. Furthermore, OP token holders have previously passed a proposal to use 50% of Superchain sorter revenue for token buybacks.
