Optimism Under Pressure: Base Exit Triggers 30 Percent OP Token Crash

The Ethereum Layer-2 project Optimism is confronting multiple challenges simultaneously. Following public criticism from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin regarding the Layer-2 roadmap, Coinbase's Base network announced its exit from the Optimism Superchain ^[1].

The significance of this move is substantial: According to current data, Base accounts for 95 percent of the Real Economic Value within the Superchain collective ^[1]. The OP token lost 30 percent of its value within one week and is currently trading at $0.1317 ^[1].

A technological directional dispute appears to be emerging in the background. The Ethereum Foundation may be pursuing a standardization of the Layer-2 landscape with zkEVMs as the preferred standard, which would disadvantage Optimistic Rollups like OP and Arbitrum ^[1].

OP Labs CEO Jing Wang contradicted the negative assessment, emphasizing that the "Unified Base Stack" continues to share 99 percent of its code with the OP Stack ^[1]. From a technical perspective, the token shows oversold conditions with an RSI of 26.5, but remains below the EMA-20 and thus in bearish territory ^[1].

The decisive factor will be whether the project's technical substance can offset the reputational damage, or whether Base's departure marks a structural break in the Superchain model ^[1].