TLDR
Base is breaking away from Optimisms OP Stack while Ether.fi shifts to ethereum/">Optimism from Scroll, reshaping incentives and competition among Ethereum layer 2 networks.
- Base is moving to its own Base stack, exiting Optimisms OP Stack while keeping OP Enterprise support for now.
- Ether.fi is migrating its Cash product from Scroll to Optimisms mainnet, bringing real payment volume and users to OP.
- Together these moves hurt OP and Scroll in the short term but highlight a wider reordering of L2 alliances, revenue and app distribution.
Deep Dive
1. Base Takes Control Of Its Stack
Coinbases L2 Base announced it is moving away from the OP Stack to a unified, in house base/base stack that consolidates sequencer, client and release tooling.
This lets Base double its planned hard forks to about six per year and reduce dependence on Optimisms release cadence, while still consuming OP Enterprise support and remaining compatible during the transition.
Crucially, Base will retain its own sequencer revenue instead of sharing it with Optimism, ending a three year revenue sharing relationship that had been central to the OP Stack Superchain model.
Base is signaling it wants speed and independence over shared governance, which pressures other large L2s to consider similar vertical integration.
2. Ether.fi Shifts From Scroll To Optimism
Ether.fi, a large restaking and payments project, is migrating its Cash product from Scroll to Optimism to use OP Enterprise, deeper liquidity and better payment rails.
The move brings tens of thousands of active cards, hundreds of thousands of accounts and millions in TVL plus roughly 2 million dollars in daily transaction volume to Optimisms mainnet.
For Scroll, which has around 100 million dollars in TVL, losing a flagship app with real world payments is a material hit to narrative and usage.
App teams are increasingly treating L2 choice as a business decision about users, payments and enterprise support, not just transaction fees.
3. How The L2 Map Gets Rewired
Base has historically generated over 90% of Superchain revenue, so its exit from the OP Stack has direct revenue impact for Optimism even as Ether.fis migration brings new flow back to OP.
Markets noticed: the OP token plunged over 20% in 24 hours on the news, reflecting concerns about lost revenue and competitive positioning among L2s.
More broadly, these moves show a trend toward L2s owning more of their stack while apps re optimize where they deploy, which can increase fragmentation but also intensify competition to offer better tooling, liquidity and enterprise deals.
Watch where large apps choose to live and which L2s own their own infrastructure, because that is likely to shape future TVL, fee and token performance more than fee levels alone.
Conclusion
Bases pivot away from the OP Stack and Ether.fis migration toward Optimism both pull on the same L2 fabric, redistributing revenue and usage across the ecosystem.
For crypto users and builders, the key signal is that L2 loyalties are not fixed; both networks and applications can and will move when economics, control and support shift.
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