Vitalik Buterin Hails Optimism After $100 Million Funding To Developers

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on Thursday gave a big shout-out to Optimism, a Layer-2 blockchain network built atop Ethereum, for its continuous efforts to fund public goods. Buterin took to X (formerly X) and said he was “impressed” by Optimism’s dedication to aiding developers and contributors despite not having a conventional business model.

The comments came after Optimism’s Retroactive Public Foods Funding (RetroPGF) initiative dished out 30 million OP tokens in Round 3, valued at over $100 million, for developers and contributors in recognition of their role in building public goods underpinning the Optimism Collective.

Optimism Recognizes Developers’ Efforts, Doles Out $100 Million

As many as 501 individuals across the Optimism ecosystem received the handout. They were judged across four different parameters—OP Stack, Collective Governance, Developer Ecosystem, and End User Experience and Adoption. The reward recipients included writers, creators, educators, and contributors.

RetroPGF is emerging as an alternative funding source for public goods creators, who often fail to raise capital from traditional channels. It ensures the availability of necessary core tools and infrastructure, enabling smooth blockchain operations. In the previous two rounds, Optimism’s RetroPGF initiative had distributed over $10 million to developers and contributors.

How Did the Market React To Vitalik Buterin’s Comments?

While Optimism garnered praise from Buterin for assisting developers, and in turn, boosting the Ethereum ecosystem, his comments failed to revive interest in the Optimism token.

At press time, OP price stood at $3.87, down 0.7% over the last seven hours. Meanwhile, trading volumes over the last 24 hours fell over 36% to $488.3 million, indicating diminishing retail interest in the cryptocurrency. However, the token has rallied over 12% in the past seven days and is up a whopping 67% from a month ago.

In sharp contrast to this, Ethereum — the second largest crypto — has witnessed a dramatic rise in its prices after the US SEC allowed spot exchange-traded funds tracking Bitcoin. ETH prices have surged over 17% in the last seven days, according to data from CoinGecko.