Base Exits Optimism Superchain After Contributing 96.5% of Gas Fees; OP Token Falls 28% in 48 Hours

Base has decided to leave the Optimism Superchain and consolidate its own codebase after contributing 96.5% of all gas fees to the Optimism Collective by January 2026, Coinbase disclosed in a February 18, 2026 blog post. The OP token fell 28% within 48 hours following the announcement, with selling volume jumping 157%, and traded at $0.12 at the time of writing, down 89.8% from its March 2024 peak of $4.85. Superchain members currently pay 2.5% of total revenue or 15% of net profit in exchange for promised interoperability, but a longstanding governance representative said native interoperability, planned for early 2025, has not been delivered despite years of technical work. Base generated $55 million in profit in 2025, and its exit removes the main revenue source underlying the Collective's OP buyback program as token unlocks for investors and contributors continue at roughly $32 million per month, while OP Mainnet retains $1.5 billion in TVL and ether.fi plans to migrate an onchain credit card product with 70,000 active cards, 300,000 accounts, and over $160 million in TVL.