Optimism’s OP token falls after Base moves away from the network’s ‘OP stack’ in major tech shift

Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, is changing the technology that powers it, stepping back from relying on Optimism’s OP Stack, the toolkit it originally launched on.

In a blog post titled “The Next Chapter for Base,” the team said it plans to take more control over its own code and infrastructure. Instead of depending on multiple outside teams for key upgrades and changes, Base will consolidate everything into a Base-managed codebase.

In simple terms, Base was built using Optimism’s technology, but now it wants to steer more of its own ship. Optimism is a layer-2 blockchain on top of Ethereum that aims to reduce settlement times and transaction costs.

Base launched in 2023 and quickly became one of the most widely used Ethereum layer-2 networks, with $3.85 billion locked in the protocol today. When the network went live, the Optimism and Base teams shared that Base could earn up to approximately 118 million OP tokens over six years. It is unclear as to what that means for that agreement.

The OP token is down 4% over the past 24 hours following the announcement.

The team said that the change doesn’t mean Base is cutting ties with Optimism entirely. The company said it will still work with Optimism for support and will remain compatible with OP Stack standards during the transition. For everyday users and developers, nothing should immediately change.

The team said the shift is happening because, if it controls its own stack, Base can ship upgrades faster and simplify how the network operates behind the scenes, aiming to double its pace of major upgrades to about six per year.

For now, the transition is mostly technical.

“This unification does not mean Base will be built in isolation. The protocol remains public and specified in the open, and alternative implementations are welcome and encouraged,” the team wrote in their blog post.

“We’re grateful for our three-year partnership with Base, and proud to have helped it become one of the most successful Layer 2 deployments in history,” an OP Labs spokesperson told CoinDesk.

“Our focus remains on delivering enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure to our ecosystem, and we will continue to serve Base as an OP Enterprise customer while they build out their independent infrastructure.”

UPDATE (Feb. 18, 2026, 18:06 UTC): Adds OP Labs statement + background info on 118M OP token agreement.