Optimism: sequencer fee rebates for select partners on OP Mainnet

A proposal for sequencer fee rebates on OP Mainnet would let the Optimism Foundation offer select partners a rebate on part of the sequencer fees their own activity generates on the chain. The text, written in the Foundation's name, was posted in the Proposals category of the Optimism governance forum on 29 October 2026 by the forum's system account, with the proposal type given as Rights protection, and it requests approval. It matters because buybacks would be calculated on revenue net of rebates, and because the partners who would receive the rebates are not named and would not be named.

What it changes

• The proposal authorises the Foundation to use OP Mainnet sequencer and priority fee revenue to give rebates to partners.
• Rebates apply only to fees from activity a specific partner brings to OP Mainnet, so that every rebate is funded by revenue the partner created.
• A rebate may not exceed the fees generated by that partner.
• Rebates are selective. They are not offered to every partner or in every deal, and are used only where the overall terms are favourable to Optimism.
• Partners must reach defined activity milestones before rebates begin, and each agreement has a fixed term.
• Rebates are paid from fee revenue in ETH rather than from OP tokens, so they do not add to circulating OP supply.
• Buybacks are calculated on revenue net of rebates, and the buyback program is described as directing up to 50% of net Superchain revenue to OP purchases.
• Partnership commitments the Foundation may seek include launching or migrating products, assets or settlement to OP Mainnet, exclusivity or priority within a product line, minimum activity, volume or asset levels, liquidity commitments, integrations that bring customers or counterparties onchain, co-marketing and distribution, reporting, verification and audit rights over attributed activity, and termination or clawback rights for manipulation.
• The Foundation will not publish the terms, number, or identity of individual agreements. It will report the total rebates paid as a share of total OP Mainnet sequencer and priority gas revenue, in fixed percentage bands, starting with the next annual Collective budget report.
• Any expansion beyond this scope, such as rebates on general network activity, comes back to governance as a new proposal.

The case for it

The proposal's argument is that a rebate only spends revenue that the partner itself creates: "Because a rebate is a share of fees that would not exist without the partner, it adds a performance-based incentive to the partnership toolkit without spending OP." On the token side: "No new OP in circulation. Rebates are paid from fee revenue (ETH), not using OP tokens, so they do not add to circulating OP supply."

The Foundation argues that growing OP Mainnet is one of the Collective's core objectives and that partnerships are among the most effective ways to do it. It says it has been deliberate about how it uses OP, citing the Year 4 budget update for new OP commitments falling by about a third year over year. It gives Ether.fi as an example, saying that since partnering with Optimism, Ether.fi has grown its OP Mainnet TVL to $347M and passed 100,000 cardholders, and that Optimism now carries roughly 29% of crypto card settlement volume.

Where it stands

The proposal was posted in the Optimism governance forum's Proposals category on 29 October 2026. It is the Foundation's request for approval, and it names its own next step: "Upon approval, the Foundation may include sequencer fee rebates in partnership agreements, within the constraints above." The first aggregate figures on rebates paid are due in the next annual Collective budget report.

As of 2 November 2026 the thread has no replies and no vote is linked from it.