Optimism Team Lays Off 20 Employees Amid Ethereum Scaling Shifts, Base Migration Plans
OP Labs, the core team behind Ethereum layer-2 network Optimism, is laying off 20 employees to streamline operations, make faster decisions, and reduce overhead—not due to financial constraints. CEO Jing Wang emphasized the firm is well-funded and the layoffs represent a strategic narrowing of focus. This move follows industry shifts, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s recent comments that mainnet Ethereum is scaling independently, reducing the necessity for layer-2 networks. Additionally, the Base network, developed by Coinbase, is migrating away from Optimism’s OP Stack technology, which will end shared sequencer revenue with Optimism. Following these developments, the Optimism (OP) token has dropped around 2.9% in the last 24 hours and is down roughly 86% over the past year. The OP mainnet currently ranks 12th in total value locked among all networks, with $1.16 billion in bridged assets.
