An Ethereum (ETH) scaling altcoin is surging in price while crypto markets continue to trade sideways on the day.
Optimism (OP), the layer-2 (L2) scaling solution for Ethereum, exploded in price by 78% in the past week, reflecting a general upward trend in crypto over the last seven days.
The OP native token soared from a low of $0.64 last week to a high of $1.14 this week. At time of writing, OP has retraced to $1.09 and has a market cap of $234.7 million.
Coinbase, the top US crypto change, listed OP for trading on May 31. With the announcement, OP soared from $0.79 to $1.92, a 143% increase.
Optimism’s price leap appeared to coincide with the upswing of the overall crypto market. Bitcoin (BTC) shot to a high of $21,013 this week from a low five days prior to $18,696, a 12% increase. At time of writing, Bitcoin is changing hands at $20,540. Ethereum increased from last week’s low of $1,255 to a high this week of $1,595, a 27% increase.
The price increase also followed Optimism’s announcement of “an eventful week.”
“Well nerds, it’s been a very eventful week here at Optimism! There’s a lot to get you caught up on, so let’s jump right into this week’s recap. First, we announced the OP Stack: a set of modular components ready to assemble into custom chains to fit any use-case.”
Optimism says they are a less expensive and more efficient blockchain for apps to operate on.
“Optimism is a fast, stable, and scalable L2 blockchain built by Ethereum developers, for Ethereum developers. Built as a minimal extension to existing Ethereum software, Optimism’s EVM-equivalent architecture scales your Ethereum apps without surprises. If it works on Ethereum, it works on Optimism at a fraction of the cost.”
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