OP: swapping the Optimism governance token

OP is the token used to govern the Optimism ecosystem, giving holders a say in how the network and its grants develop. It's an ERC-20 that lives mainly on Optimism, with liquidity elsewhere too.

As on other Ethereum rollups, OP is not what you pay fees with. Gas on Optimism is paid in ETH. OP is an ecosystem and governance asset you hold or trade separately from your working gas balance.

Swapping OP into or out of ETH, stablecoins, or other assets is a same-chain swap on Optimism, or a cross-chain route to another network. Multiswap compares those routes, ranks by net received, and lets you swap non-custodially.

Since OP is an ERC-20, expect a token approval on the way out, and keep a little ETH on Optimism for gas on both the approval and the swap.

Optimism's design extends to a family of related chains, so OP's relevance reaches beyond a single network. Wherever you hold or move it, the same rule applies: OP is the asset, ETH is the gas.

If you're moving OP between networks, that's a cross-chain swap. Confirm the destination network and keep gas on the side you land on.

OP's role is tied to how the Optimism Collective allocates resources. A defining feature is retroactive public-goods funding, the idea that the ecosystem rewards work that has already proven useful, with OP as one of the tools used to do it. Governance runs through a two-house structure where token holders and a citizens' body weigh in on different kinds of decisions.

For a swapper this is background rather than mechanics, but it explains why OP is treated as an ecosystem and governance asset with reach across the Superchain, not a fee token for one chain. As with any governance token, that also means its usefulness depends on the ecosystem around it, which is worth keeping in mind alongside the swap itself.