Optimism-based projects spike on rumors of token airdrop

cointelegraph.com:

The native token prices from multiple projects that employ Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution Optimism have spiked around 20% amid rumors that the network will soon launch a token and airdrop it to the community.

Optimism is a Layer 2 scaling solution that utilizes Optimistic rollups to process a high amount of transactions off the Ethereum blockchain. The project touts that it can operate smart contracts 5 to 500X cheaper than Ethereum's Layer 1.

According to DeFiLlama, the platform currently accounts for $496.47 million worth of total value locked (TVL) from 30 different projects that use it to scale such as Synthetix (SNX), UniSwap (UNI), Stargate Finance (STG) and Perpetual Protocol to name a few.

The rumors of a possible token distribution to users of the related projects started to swirl on Twitter earlier today after Optimism published a blog post titled “A New Chapter” which recapped the project’s performance since its launch early last year, along with outlining its plans moving forward.

The team highlighted notable milestones over the past 12 months such as $17.4 billion worth of transaction volume, $24.5 million worth of revenue and saving $1.1 billion worth of gas fees.

Optimism's story so far, by the numbers: Saved $1.1B in gas fees On-boarded 300k unique addresses Secured $900M of value Facilitated $17.4B in TX volume Generated $24.5M in revenueA new chapter is near.Let’s take a minute to reflect on the path so far.

While Optimism didn’t directly state anything about launching or airdropping a native token, onlookers highlighted the last section of the post which outlines a new stage of development that will be driven by the community:

Commenting on the wording of the post, self-described “master airdrop