Optimism's OP Labs cuts 20% of staff to 'do fewer things well'

OP Labs, the blockchain infrastructure firm behind Optimism, announced today that it has laid off 20 employees.

A screenshot shared by Jing Wang, co-founder of Optimism and CEO of OP Labs, showed a message she sent to the team earlier in the day after the layoffs. The screenshot indicated the team channel included 102 members, suggesting the job cuts represent roughly a 19.6% reduction in staff.

"This is not about finances. OP Labs is well capitalized with years of runway," Wang wrote in the message. "This is about doing fewer things well, making decisions faster, and reducing coordination overhead."

While Wang did not disclose which positions were affected, she encouraged recruiters on social media to reach out to those impacted by the layoffs, describing them as "talented engineers, operators, and builders who helped build Optimism into what it is today."

The Block has reached out to Wang for further comment.

Transitional period

Optimism is a key Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution. Its OP Stack serves as its open-source foundation for building customizable chains, while Superchain is the unified bridge for those L2 networks.

OP stack powered some of the most successful blockchains, including the Coinbase-incubated Base. OP Labs functions as the main research, development, and engineering team driving protocol advancements.

The layoffs come during a transitional phase for Optimism. Last month, Base announced that it is shifting to its own unified tech stack to pursue independent development. As Base was the largest chain built on the OP Stack with billions of dollars in total value locked, its departure led to a sharp drop in the OP token price and concerns about Optimism's long-term sustainability.

Despite this setback, Optimism has set forth a clear roadmap for 2026. 

Last month, Wang said Optimism aims to achieve multiple goals this year, including faster block times, native interoperability, custom compliance controls to fit different regulatory environments, and zero-knowledge proof systems closely aligned with Ethereum's quantum-proof ZK systems roadmap.

In January, holders of OP tokens voted to approve a proposal that could redirect millions of dollars worth of protocol revenue to token buybacks. The proposal, aimed to better align the OP token with the Superchain, allocates 50% of Superchain sequencer revenue to monthly OP token buybacks under a 12-month pilot that started last month.

According to The Block's crypto price page, OP token (OP) is up 0.17% in the past 24 hours to trade at $0.12, with a market capitalization of $251.7 million. It has fallen 37% over the past 30 days.