Optimism To Sell 116 Million OP Tokens Via Private Sale: Will The Price React?

Optimism has revealed its plans to sell 116 million OP tokens to seven private buyers. According to the update, this sale is for treasury management tokens. 

Based on current prices, this sale will transfer approximately $159 million worth of OP tokens to the buyers. Given the sheer amount of the sale, some traders believe it will likely cause a decline in OP’s price.

In detail, Optimism posted a community update on September 20 on selling approximately 116 million OP tokens. The tokens are from the unallocated portion of the OP Token treasury, and these tokens are part of the Foundation’s original working budget of 30% of the initial OP supply.

According to the update, the tokens are subject to a two-year lockup. During the lockup period, the purchasers can delegate the tokens to third parties for on-chain governance.

Also, the announcement stated that from September 20, several transactions will take place with the released tokens. It noted that the transactions are pre-planned. 

It bears mentioning that this token sale comes a few days after Optimism announced its third OP airdrop to reward community members for participation in on-chain governance. Optimism released over 19 million OP tokens to over 31,000 unique addresses. 

Meanwhile, the OP community received the announcement with mixed reactions, with one user expressing disappointment. He expressed concerns that the token sale will increase Optimism’s circulating supply, impacting the price.

Some observers have expressed concern that the sale will affect OP’s price negatively, as the buyers may dump their tokens. However, there are a few reasons why this is unlikely to happen.

Firstly, the sale is private, meaning the buyers are not required to disclose their identities or intentions for the tokens. Therefore, it makes it difficult for traders to anticipate the buyers’ actions.

Secondly, the tokens are from the OP treasury’s unallocated portion and are not part of the circulating supply. It means that the sale will have a minimal impact on the availability of OP on the open market.

Furthermore, the tokens are subject to a two-year lockup period. The lockup prevents buyers from selling them on secondary markets until at least 2025, reducing the likelihood of a sell-off that could depress price.

Overall, Optimism can fund its development by raising capital from investors without relying on the public. Such action could lead to increased demand for OP from bullish investors on the project’s long-term prospects.

Other projects have held similar private sales in the past. Recall that Polygon raised $450 million last year in a private token sale led by Sequoia Capital India. Also, in 2021, Arbitrum raised $120 million in a private token sale led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

In both of these cases, the private token sales positively impacted the price of the respective tokens. The Polygon MATIC’s price increased by over 50% in the two weeks following the announcement of the private sale. 

Similarly, the price of AAVE increased by 20% in the two weeks following Arbitrum’s private sale announcement.

Therefore, based on this historical precedent, the private sale could benefit OP in the long run. However, note that the cryptocurrency market is volatile, and OP’s price is not guaranteed to increase.