Optimism: 2024 year in review

The year 2024 was a pivotal year for Optimism and the broader Ethereum ecosystem. As we begin 2025, it is essential to reflect on the progress made across Optimism and beyond. From numerous upgrades to the OP Stack, to partnerships and collaborations, and the distribution of millions in OP rewards, the growth of the Superchain has been remarkable.

Key Achievements

The Superchain's Remarkable Growth: In 2024, the Superchain ecosystem expanded significantly, with over 30 OP Chains joining the ecosystem, including major players like Kraken, Sony, Uniswap, and World Chain. Nearly 50% of all L2 transactions on Ethereum are now powered by the Superchain, demonstrating its ability to handle internet-scale usage. The total value locked in apps grew from $1.4B in December 2023 to $4.8B in December 2024, and daily transactions skyrocketed from 650K to 11.1M, marking a 1600% increase.
Scaling Ethereum with the OP Stack: The OP Stack, the open-source development stack behind the Superchain, made significant progress in 2024. The year saw the launch of permissionless fault proofs, paving the way for OP Stack Chains to achieve Stage 1 decentralization. Advancements in interoperability, such as the updated Dev Console and tools like Supersim and the SuperchainERC20 starter kit, provided developers with essential resources to experiment with Superchain Interop. Additionally, numerous impactful features were shipped, benefiting both the Superchain and Ethereum, including significant cost reductions for L2s and the introduction of native passkey verification.
Retro Funding and User Rewards: Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) distributed 20.4M OP through 3 rounds to 374 projects, recognizing meaningful contributions to the Superchain. Additionally, over 20M OP was dedicated to reward more than 76K unique addresses through two airdrops, celebrating artists, creators, pioneers, and power users who actively engaged with apps across the Superchain ecosystem.