On August 19, the Optimism community approved the transfer of 546.9 million OP, worth approximately $49.7 million, from the reserve for future airdrops to a new ecosystem development fund.
17.97 million OP votes were cast in favor of the proposal, with 10.93 million against. Before the intervention by Test in Prod, the initiative had 45.77% "yes" votes, but after the team cast 8.486 million OP votes 17 minutes before the vote closed, support grew to 61.84%.
Funds to be Directed to Optimism's Development
According to the proposal by the Optimism Foundation, the unallocated coins will be transferred to the Strategic Ecosystem Fund. These assets are intended for the development of OP Mainnet and the corporate-focused OP Enterprise.
The fund will be able to use the tokens for partnerships with blockchains, protocols, and financial companies, stimulating liquidity, and attracting major brands. Management of the funds will remain with the Optimism Foundation.
The decision will not affect airdrops that have already been conducted. Over five rounds, the Optimism team has distributed 269.1 million OP among users, while another 546.9 million had long been reserved for future campaigns. No new airdrops are currently planned.
The foundation explained this as a change in strategy: in the early stages, airdrops were used to attract a broad audience; now, Optimism is placing greater emphasis on working with fintech firms, exchanges, payment services, and other organizations.
The Deciding Vote Came from Optimism Developers
The deciding vote came from the developers of Test in Prod, who have been involved in creating various components of the OP Stack since 2022. The team manages 8.486 million voting power delegated by 798 addresses. In June, it was re-elected to the project's security council.
Test in Prod justified its support for the initiative by citing the need to compete for corporate clients. According to the developers, tokens are often part of such deals, and disclosing amounts before they are finalized could give an advantage to competitors.
"We believe this reserve is needed now, and we should be cautious about sharing information with competitors," they stated.
At the same time, the team urged the Optimism Foundation to disclose the aggregate amounts spent and the results achieved after concluding such agreements.
L2BEAT Opposed
The proposal sparked controversy even before the vote. The research platform L2BEAT supported the idea of reconsidering the purpose of the remaining tokens but disagreed with the final version.
In the analysts' opinion, the fund receives overly broad authority to distribute the 546.9 million OP. The document lacks sufficient detail on the specific purposes for which the funds will be used, how results will be evaluated, and what benefit this will bring to OP holders.
L2BEAT also suggested first analyzing the outcomes of Optimism's previous major partnership programs.
An Optimism delegate under the pseudonym cp0x also voiced criticism. He pointed out that the 546.9 million OP were originally reserved specifically for future user airdrops. After the proposal's approval, these tokens will come under the management of the Optimism Foundation, and no separate vote will be required for each of the fund's deals.
Optimism wants the unspent airdrop allocation for something else.
— cp0x.com (@cp0xdotcom) August 14, 2026
546.9M OP, 12.7% of initial supply, is what is left of the share set aside for users. @Optimism is asking to redesignate it as a Strategic Ecosystem Fund. Voting closes Aug 19.
Here is what that money was.
At...
A similar position was expressed by a user under the pseudonym The Gentleman. He criticized the decision to change the designation of coins that were previously publicly presented as a reserve for future user distributions.
Recall that in March, Optimism's developer company, OP Labs, laid off 20 people to accelerate internal processes and reduce costs.
