Optimism price prediction: What is optimism (OP)?
It was created to help make working on the blockchain faster and less expensive, but what what is optimism (OP)?
Let’s see what we can find out, and also take a look at some of the optimism price predictions that were being made as of 7 March 2023.
Optimism explained
Optimism is one of many layer-2 scaling solutions out there: Platforms that are designed to make it quicker and cheaper to work on the blockchain by, in effect, creating an extra layer to the chain where transactions can be processed. It was first proposed in 2019, by its founders Jinglan Wang, Ben Jones, Karl Floersch and Kevin Ho, with its mainnet opening in 2021.
As its whitepaper states:
It was built by Ethereum (ETH) developers and is intended to be a minimal extension to Ethereum apps. In addition, the platform helps make Ethereum transactions faster and cheaper.
In short, the idea behind Optimism is that it should be upbeat, last for a long time, be easy to work with, and do what it needs to do in a practical manner.
Optimism’s native token is also called optimism (OP) and it helps fund third-party development proposals and integrations on the Optimism platform, via the Optimism Collective decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). People who hold OP can also take part in votes on the future of the network.
It is worth noting that, while you may see references to things like an “optimism coin price prediction”, such terms are not strictly accurate because OP is based on Ethereum, which makes it a token rather than a coin.
While the concept has been around since 2019, it was only on 31 May 2022 that the first optimism airdrop took place, taking the OP turning its concept into something that existed in the real world, or at least the real crypto world.
Optimism price history
Let’s take a look at the OP price history. While we do have to remind you that past performance is never any indicator of future results, knowing what the token has done in the time that it has been available to trade can give us some useful context if we want to either interpret an Optimism price prediction, or make one of our own.
When OP first came onto the open market, via the first airdrop on 31 May 2022, it was worth $4.57, according to CoinMarketCap. It seems that price was rather optimistic, however. The market almost immediately decided it was overvalued and sent it down to a low of $0.7973 before closing the day at $1.44 – 68.5% lower than the opening price.
While the initial price still stands as optimism’s all-time high, there have been some moves in the OP token price.
In June 2022, the market was still reeling from the depegging of the UST stablecoin and the collapse of the associated LUNA cryptocurrency. This was swiftly followed by the Celsius crypto lending platform freezing withdrawals, which only served to confirm the bear market. All this was bad news for the newly minted Optimism, and it fell to its all-time low of $0.4005 on 18 June 2022 – less than a tenth of what its price at launch.
There was some better news after that, with the token making a slow comeback to finish the month at $0.5434. But by 13 July 2022, the token fell to $0.4147 and continued its bearish trend.
Ultimately, once Ethereum’s Merge – the move to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in an attempt to make the blockchain quicker and more environmentally friendly – took place on 15 September 2022, the crypto markets did not respond as positively as many investors had anticipated. Despite completing its launch on OpenSea, optimism was trading at $0.8917 on 28 September.
OP continued to fall even further, reaching $0.649 by 21 October. However, by 4 November 2022, the token regained over 108% and surged up to $1.3512 as it launched Pragmatism, a library design system created by figma for the Optimism Collective.
First off, @OPLabsPBC released Pragmatism: a @figma library and design system for, created by, and to be used for the Optimism Collective. Because big dreams like building a scalable and sustainable future for Ethereum require a pragmatic approach!https://t.co/shfcz2YXeA
— Optimism (✨????_????✨) (@optimismFND) 4 November 2022
That bullish run was short-lived, though, as the token fell to $0.7952 by 10 November 2022, triggered by the the collapse of the FTX (FTT) exchange. Throughout the remaining weeks of November the token fluctuated between $1 and $0.8 before embarking on a steady rise in December, spurred when Optimism announced that it would deploy the AttestationStation, an attestation smart contract that would provide “a permissionless, accessible data source for builders creating reputation-based applications”.
“By enabling anyone to make arbitrary attestations about other addresses, we can create a rich library of qualitative and quantitative data that can be used across the ecosystem,” the platform noted.
On 15 December 2022, the platform also added that an Optimism non-fungible token (NFT) would be “coming soon” on the AttestationStation and would be a “customisable profile picture that can represent user identity across the Optimism Ecosystem”.
Earlier on, the platform had also announced Retroactive Public Goods Funding Round 2, which would launch in February 2023 and aim to give back to those “powering the public goods that make Optimism possible”.
The first half of December saw OP rising, reaching a high of $1.19 before dropping to close the year at $0.9172. OP then enjoyed a rally at the start of the New Year, reaching $3.21 on 3 February. A drop was followed by a recovery to $3.26 on 24 February, but then it went down to trade at about $2.52 on 7 March 2023.
At that time, there were 314,844,141 OP in circulation out of a total supply of 4,294,967,296. This gave the token a market cap of around $793m, making it the 62nd-largest crypto by that metric.
Optimism price prediction round-up
With that all out of the way, let’s now take a look at some of the optimism price predictions that were being made as of 7 March 2023. It is important to remember that price forecasts, especially when it comes to a commodity as potentially volatile as cryptocurrency, are often wrong. Also, keep in mind that many long-term crypto price predictions are made using an algorithm, which means they can change at a moment’s notice.
Firstly, CoinCodex had rather downbeat short-term optimism price prediction for 2023. The site said that the token could hit $2.06 by 12 March before dropping further to $1.54 by 6 April. The site’s technically analysis was, perhaps surprisingly, neutral with 15 indicators sending bullish signals against nine making bearish ones.
Next, DigitalCoinPrice made an OP price prediction which said that the token could be worth $5.04 this year and $6.39 in 2024. The site went on to make an optimism price prediction for 2030 that saw it trade at a potential $25.73.
Meanwhile, Gov Capital had an optimism token price prediction which saw the crypto close 2023 at somewhere between $3.62 and $3.63. The site’s optimism price prediction for 2025 suggested OP could start the year between $5.15 and $5.16, reach $5.76 by 7 March and close it at $6.92, before going on to hit a little under $10.24 in five years’ time.
Finally, Wallet Investor was rather positive in terms of its optimism crypto price prediction, which saw the OP price hit $4.32 by 7 March 2024 and trade at a fraction of a cent under $12.01 in five years time.
When considering an OP token price prediction, it’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile, making it difficult to accurately predict what a coin or token’s price will be in a few hours, and even harder to give long-term estimates. As such, analysts and algorithm-based forecasters can and do get their predictions wrong.
If you are considering investing in cryptocurrency coins and tokens, we recommend that you always do your own research. Look at the latest market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis, and expert opinion before making any investment decision. Keep in mind that past performance is no guarantee of future returns, and never trade with money that you cannot afford to lose.
FAQs
How many optimism coins are there?
As of 7 March 2023, there were 314,844,141 OP in circulation, out of a total supply of 4,294,967,296.
Is optimism a good investment?
It is hard to say. Although the token has performed well recently, it remains to be seen whether it can maintain its momentum. A lot will depend on the performance of the market as a whole.
Remember, you should always carry out your own thorough research before making an investment. Even high-market-cap cryptocurrencies can be affected by bear markets, so investors should be prepared to make losses and never purchase more than they can afford to lose.
Will optimism go up or down?
No one can really tell right now. While the likes of DigitalCoinPrice were upbeat as of 9 January 2023, other sites, such as Coincodex, were more pessimistic. Remember that price predictions often end up being wrong, and that prices can and do go down as well as up.
In volatile cryptocurrency markets, it is important to do your own research on a coin or token to determine if it is a good fit for your investment portfolio. Whether OP is a suitable investment for you depends on your risk tolerance and how much you intend to invest, among other factors.
Keep in mind that past performance is no guarantee of future returnsl, and never invest any money that you cannot afford to lose.
Should I invest in optimism?
This is a question that you will have to answer for yourself. Before you decide whether or not to invest in optimism, you will need to do your own research, not only on OP, but on other layer-2 scaling solutions.
Never invest more money than you can afford to lose, because prices can go down as well as up.
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