Coinbase is steering Base away from the Optimism Stack and toward a standalone infrastructure called the Unified Base Stack. The market reacted quickly, with OP falling 4% on the day. This is not only a technical shift. It also puts the revenue-sharing link between Base and Optimism under pressure.
Under the existing arrangement, Base has been paying the Optimism Collective treasury the greater of 2.5% of gross revenue or 15% of net profit after Layer-1 costs. According to the figures cited for 2025, Base alone accounted for about 71% of all sequencer revenue generated across the Superchain. That makes Base more than a contributor; it is the dominant source of sequencer-related inflows in the broader Optimism ecosystem.
Unified Base Stack creates room to revisit the deal
By building an independent stack, Base is creating a path for the current payment structure to be renegotiated or even stopped. The report frames this as a turning point for the OP treasury, because a separation from the Superchain would strip away its largest single source of income. If that happens, the financial base supporting OP could weaken in a very visible way.
The issue extends beyond treasury accounting. In January, Optimism said that 50% of the sequencer revenue it had received would be directed to OP buybacks in the market. That policy was meant to support token demand during volatile conditions. If Base exits or reduces its payments, the scale of those buybacks could shrink as well. Less treasury inflow would likely mean less direct buying support for OP.
Buyback support for OP may come under strain
The article ties the risk clearly to OP’s recent market weakness. With the token already facing uneven performance in recent months, any sharp drop in treasury income could force Optimism to reassess spending, buyback activity, and the broader framework it uses to support OP in secondary markets. The pressure is financial first, but it would quickly become strategic.
That is where the wider Superchain model comes into focus. Optimism’s pitch has centered on a shared technical base and collective growth, with participating networks contributing to a larger ecosystem. Base moving toward its own stack challenges that model at the point where it matters most: revenue. If other participants eventually follow a similar path, the shared pool could come under heavier strain.
A new fault line in the Ethereum layer-2 market
For Base, the shift promises greater autonomy and more flexibility over its own infrastructure. For Optimism, it raises the question of how to replace a major source of treasury income. The report points to coming negotiations and technical developments as the next key markers, because this move has implications well beyond one codebase. It touches the balance of power, partnership design, and revenue distribution across Ethereum’s layer-2 ecosystem.