OP airdrop round one: the full criteria, and preparing for a round two that is already confirmed

Optimism​, the Ethereum L2, has begun distributing the OP token. The biggest news is not the distribution itself but that the team explicitly called this "the first round". Of the 19% of supply set aside for users, only about a quarter has been used.

Item	Detail
Distributed	214,748,364.8 OP (5% of the 4,294,967,296 OP supply)
Recipients	About 249,000 addresses
Framing	Officially "round one" — more is confirmed
Developer	OP Labs (backed by a16z and Paradigm)

The criteria: contributions that cost nothing also counted

Round one covered natural usage from before the announcement.

• Early Optimism users (bridging, transactions)
• Users who came back repeatedly
• DAO voters on Ethereum mainnet
• Multisig signers
• Gitcoin donors

What stands out is that DAO voting and donations meant being a good citizen of Ethereum qualified you even without using Optimism​. It is the first large case of non-financial contribution being rewarded.

Preparing for round two (the remaining allocation is already set)

The takeaway: keep using it, and take part in governance. Those two things.

1. Bridge to Optimism and transact regularly
2. Delegate the OP you received and take part in voting — voters were scored in round one, so it is likely to be an axis again
3. Keep contributing to the ecosystem through Gitcoin and similar

I keep up a few swaps a month and my OP delegation, nothing more. The cost is roughly gas.

Risks and caveats

• The criteria and timing for round two are unpublished. All we can do is infer from round one
• Watch for fake claim sites. Always go through the official one
• L2s are still new technology. Do not leave large holdings parked

Summary

There is one next action. Bridge to Optimism, get your first transaction done, and delegate your OP if you hold any. The candidate list for round two is being built starting today.

⚠️ This is not investment advice.

Sources

• Airdrop #1 eligibility criteria (Optimism Collective docs)
• Introducing the Optimism Collective (Optimism blog)