Was Base L2’s Exit The Trigger? OP Labs CEO Jing Wang Explains Optimism’s Layoffs

OP Labs CEO Jing Wang confirmed that 20% employees are leaving the company, clarifying that the decision was driven by a strategic narrowing of focus rather than financial pressure.

The news comes barely three weeks after Coinbase’s layer 2 network, Base, left Optimism, triggering a 23% crash for the OP token price.

OP Labs Frames Cuts as a Strategic Pivot

Wang published an internal memo confirming the departures, stating that OP Labs remains well-capitalized with years of runway.

The decision, he wrote, centers on doing fewer things and executing them at a higher level, while reducing coordination overhead across teams. Departing employees will receive:

• A minimum of three months of base pay
• Additional compensation tied to tenure, up to 5 months.
• Six months of healthcare continuation applies to all affected staff, and
• Each employee keeps their laptop.

Wang said he would personally ensure departing team members’ resumes reach prospective employers, and invited hiring teams to DM him with open roles for direct introductions.

OP Token Slides as News Goes Public

Optimism (OP) had been trading higher through the earlier part of the session, pushing above $0.12 in the hours before the announcement circulated publicly. Once the confirmation broke, the token reversed sharply.

As of this writing, OP was trading at $0.119, near the session low of $0.109. The token is down more than 55% year-to-date, with its all-time high of $4.84 set in March 2024 now a distant reference point.

Optimism (OP) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto

Notably, in recent memory, the initial Optimism price crash occurred just under three weeks ago, when OP’s market value dipped by 23%.

It followed news that Base L2 was exiting the Optimism ecosystem to build its own stack, according to the chain’s Head of Product, Wilson Cusack.

Notably, Base was the dominant chain in the Superchain ecosystem, accounting for approximately 70–96.5% of sequencer or gas fees and revenue fees to the Optimism Collective.

“This is a hit to near-term on-chain revenues,” Wang had said at the time of Base’s exit.

This loss immediately raised concerns about the Superchain’s long-term sustainability, its shared-revenue model, and its network effects.

Therefore, while no official statement from OP Labs or Jing Wang explicitly states that the 20% layoffs are due to Base, the proximity and revenue impact supposition suggests it played a role.

What Continues, What Stops

Wang told the remaining staff that the goal is not to redistribute the same workload across fewer people; work will be dropped, not redistributed.

He committed to providing clarity on which initiatives will continue and which will stop.

Optimism leads the OP Stack infrastructure initiative, which underpins multiple chains across the Superchain ecosystem, including Base.

The question now is which elements of that broader roadmap receive the team’s narrowed attention going forward.

Wang’s note to staff suggested that more details on priorities would come, leaving the market and the broader developer community waiting on specifics about what a leaner OP Labs intends to build.