In a forum post dated March 7, 2024, the fund said it had entered into a private transaction, selling approximately 19.5 million OP tokens for approximately $89.5 million at current market prices. The identity of the buyer and specific terms of the transaction are not disclosed due to the private nature of the transaction.
However, the fund has confirmed that the tokens sold will be subject to a two-year lock-up period, during which the buyer will be able to delegate the tokens to unaffiliated third parties to participate in governance decisions. This arrangement effectively provides the buyer with the same benefits as a non-owner token holder.
The fund emphasized that the tokens sold were obtained from the unallocated portion of the OP token treasury, which forms part of the fund's initial operating budget of 30% of the initial OP token supply. They also said that the transfer of these tokens will be carried out in the coming days and that all transactions are part of their planned initiatives.
Interestingly, this is not the first time the Optimism Foundation has engaged in a private token sale. In September 2023, the project sold 116 million OP tokens to seven private buyers, although the fund also refrained from providing details about this sale.
Despite the significant sale of private tokens, the price of OP tokens remained virtually unchanged, showing only a slight increase of approximately 1%, according to data from CoinMarketCap at the time of reporting. This relative price stability suggests that the market was either expecting such a move or that the lock-up period and fund reassurances mitigated any potential negative impact on investor sentiment.
As the Optimism Network continues to develop and expand its ecosystem, private sales of the Fund's tokens may serve as a means of providing additional funding for ongoing projects and initiatives. However, the lack of transparency regarding these transactions may raise questions among some community members who advocate for greater openness and accountability in the crypto space.
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