Optimism is currently one of the dominant Layer 2s on Ethereum. Optimism’s total value locked (TVL) has jumped approximately 26% since the beginning of August. This growth is mainly due to the emergence of a large number of opportunities in the market that allow users to earn their governance token OP through the use of various applications.
This article will provide you with a guide listing the top 5 best opportunities to earn OP Tokens that are worth paying attention to.
How to earn OP rewards?
This summer, the Optimism Ecosystem Fund has been allocating $OP tokens to dApp teams in the Optimism ecosystem. These projects in turn distribute these tokens to incentivize and reward users for using this L2. This article will show you the best opportunities to target now to maximize your OP revenue.
OP Summer’s hottest projects
“Since the launch of 12 of the 43 incentive programs, more than $700 million has been cross-chained from the L1 network to the Optimism network, an increase of more than 600% compared to pre-incentives during the same period. The ecosystem is only as strong as the projects that make up it . Projects that have implemented incentive programs have also seen significant increases in inflows, liquidity, TVL, and transaction volume.” — Optimism Collective, August 23, 2022.
Optimism is currently the second largest L2 in the crypto economy, and this effort to expand the ecosystem of solutions now encompasses the entire spectrum of web3, including cross-chain bridges, DAOs, DeFi protocols, NFT collections, wallets, and more.
However, not all of these projects offer OP rewards to their users. Among them, we have seen that the size of the reward pool ranges widely. For example, some dapps only have 300,000 OP available for distribution, while others reserve as much as 9 million OP for rewards.
Top 5 Opportunities to Earn OP Tokens on Optimism
1. Synthetix
Decentralized derivatives protocol Synthetix kicked off its first wave of OP reward distributions last week by allocating 10,000 OP to liquidity providers (LPs) of the sUSD/3CRV and sETH/ETH pools on Curve.
The purpose of these rewards is to induce LPs to migrate their Synthetix synthetic tokens (i.e. sUSD and sETH) from the Ethereum mainnet to Optimism due to the latter’s more user-friendly experience. If you would like to receive OP rewards to help support this migration, please consider depositing into the designated Curve pool.
2. Aave
Earlier this month, decentralized lending protocol Aave launched a 90-day OP liquidity mining program for Aave V3 users, which means there are more than 60 days until the end of the event.
To participate, all you need to do is head to Aave V3’s Optimism Market and lend and borrow tokens. You can currently lend ETH, DAI, and USDC, while the tokens currently available for borrowing are ETH, DAI, USDC, WBTC, LINK, and sUSD. It’s not yet possible to claim your accumulated OP rewards, but they will be available soon.
3.Perpetual Protocol
Decentralized perpetual contract protocol Perpetual Protocol launched its OP liquidity mining program Pool Party last month. The goal is to incentivize and increase liquidity in the Perp v2 system.
Pool Party is currently allocating 27,000 OP weekly among LPs in the Perp v2 ETH market, 5,000 OP among LPs in the AAVE, BNB, BTC, FLOW, and PERP markets, and 3,000 OP among LPs in all remaining markets.
To profit from these allocations, simply head to the Perp v2 app, deposit liquidity into the market of your choice, and collect your OP rewards when they are allocated every Monday.
4. Lyra
Avalon incentive program, decentralized options protocol Lyra, has begun distributing OP rewards to LYRA stakers and LPs in its market maker vaults.
You can stake LYRA on the Lyra rewards dashboard. Keep in mind that OP rewards are only issued every two weeks, and there is a two-week unstaking period if you wish to withdraw your staked LYRA.
As for LPs, you can go to the vault dashboard and provide liquidity to an Ethereum (sETH-sUSD) vault or a Bitcoin (sBTC-sUSD) vault to earn OP rewards, which are also distributed every two weeks.
5. Velodrome
Decentralized liquidity marketplace Velodrome is currently distributing OP rewards to users who lock their VELO tokens to earn veVELO.
Over the next few months, the protocol will distribute approximately 50,000 OP to VELO lock-ups every two weeks. To join, you need to go to Velodrome’s Vest dashboard and customize your locked positions.
Future OP earning opportunities
In the future, the Optimism ecosystem will continue to expand and provide more opportunities to earn OP tokens. Users should pay close attention to new dApps and protocols and actively participate in them to maximize their benefits.
Summary: Activity in the Optimism ecosystem is now growing in all directions, and OP tokens provide a direct way to gain “index-like exposure” to the broader Optimism ecosystem. Even if you are interested in accumulating as much OP as possible, make sure you don’t indulge in these max OP liquidity mining activities.