Optimism

Status

ended

Outcome

Distributed — verifiable on-chain

Window

June 1, 2022 – open / unstated

Last checked

August 2, 2026

Our assessment

Marginal — opinion, see below

Optimism distributed OP across multiple rounds, beginning June 2022, with eligibility criteria that differed each time — early users, repeat bridgers, DAO voters, and holders of certain positions in later rounds.

What actually happened

The multi-round structure is the point of this entry. A first distribution created an expectation of further ones, and subsequent rounds used different criteria that were not announced in advance. Participants who farmed toward round two’s presumed rules were guessing.

Distribution itself is verifiable on-chain for each round.

Our assessment

Marginal, and the reason is the structure rather than the amount.

The first round rewarded past behaviour, like Uniswap’s. Everything after it created a standing incentive to keep transacting in the hope of qualifying for criteria that did not yet exist — activity performed on speculation, at the participant’s own gas cost, against unpublished rules.

That pattern is now the dominant shape of the category, and it is the one this tracker exists to flag: a programme that has already distributed once is not evidence that a second distribution is coming, and it is certainly not evidence that your current activity will qualify.