Optimism selling $162 million in tokens, flags imminent transfer

Layer 2 network Optimism is selling 116 million OP tokens currently worth around $162.4 million in a private sale and will begin transferring the funds immediately.

"Optimism has entered into a private token sale of approximately 116 million OP tokens, split among seven purchasers, for treasury management purposes," the organization said in a post. "The tokens are subject to a two-year lockup. During the lock-up, the purchasers will be able to delegate the tokens to unaffiliated third parties for participation in governance."

Earlier this month, Optimism also said it was transferring 130 million OP tokens "between wallets for treasury management purposes." Additionally, it announced on Monday an airdrop in which it allocated 19.4 million OP tokens to 31,870 addresses that participated in delegation activities of its DAO called the Optimism Collective.

'Unallocated portion'

The $162.4 million in tokens comes from "the unallocated portion of the OP token treasury and are part of the foundation’s original working budget of 30% of the initial OP token supply," Optimism also said.

Optimism's token has a total market capitalization north of $1.1 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The organization also said that transferring of the tokens would begin today.

"There will be several transactions to send the OP," it said. "These are all planned transactions and we're sharing a heads up to keep the community informed," Optimism said.