Optimism-funded team's deciding vote shifts $49 million in OP tokens away from users
A controversial vote by the Optimism Collective has redirected $49 million worth of OP tokens from a user airdrop allocation to a Strategic Ecosystem Fund. Critics argue the move lacks transparency, while the Optimism Foundation claims the funds are necessary for enterprise growth.
Why it matters
This highlights the governance challenges in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) where core teams can significantly influence token distribution at the expense of individual users.
The proposal redesignates 546.9 million OP, or 12.7% of total supply, from the user airdrop allocation as a Strategic Ecosystem Fund administered by the Optimism Foundation meant to support the adoption and growth of the OP Mainnet and Enterprise.
The vote ended with 17.974 million OP in favor and 10.931 million against. With 16 minutes and 52 seconds left, delegate.testinprod-io.eth, or Test in Prod, cast a whale-sized vote in support, lifting approval to 61.84% from 45.77%.
Excluding that position, final approval would have been 46.47%. The proposal would have met quorum and kept the funds for user allocation.
Test in Prod’s Agora profile describes it as a core development team of the Optimism Collective. In a 2025 Security Council nomination , the team said it was “fully funded by the Collective,” and secured a new 12-month term on the Optimism Security Council in June.
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