Base just broke up with Optimism’s revenue-sharing arrangement, and the fallout is reshaping how the industry thinks about Layer 2 business models. Steven Goldfeder, CEO of Offchain Labs (the company behind Arbitrum), is using the moment to draw a sharp contrast between his network’s licensing strategy and the one Base just abandoned.
What Base walked away from
In February 2026, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base terminated its revenue-sharing agreement with the Optimism Collective. Under the previous arrangement, Base contributed either 2.5% of sequencer revenue or 15% of net on-chain profits, whichever figure was greater.
Since the partnership began, Base had contributed approximately 8,387 ETH to the Optimism Collective, roughly $16.4 million. Base was responsible for nearly 90-97% of the collective’s total revenue at various points.
The OP token reacted accordingly. Following the announcement, OP’s price dropped approximately 25%, a reaction that tells you exactly how much the market had been pricing in Base’s continued contributions.
