Offchain Labs CEO makes the case for Arbitrum’s licensing model as Base walks away from Optimism revenue sharing

Base just broke up with Optimism’s revenue-sharing arrangement, and the fallout is reshaping how the industry thinks about Layer 2 business models. Steven Goldfeder, CEO of Offchain Labs (the company behind Arbitrum), is using the moment to draw a sharp contrast between his network’s licensing strategy and the one Base just abandoned. What Base walked away from In February 2026, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base terminated its revenue-sharing agreement with the Optimism Collective. Under the previous arrangement, Base contributed either 2.5% of sequencer revenue or 15% of net on-chain profits, whichever figure was greater. Since the partnership began, Base had contributed approximately 8,387 ETH to the Optimism Collective, roughly $16.4 million. Base was responsible for nearly 90-97% of the collective’s total revenue at various points. The OP token reacted accordingly. Following the announcement, OP’s price dropped approximately 25%, a reaction that tells you exactly how much the market had been pricing in Base’s continued contributions. Arbitrum’s counterproposal Enter Goldfeder, who has been vocal about Arbitrum’s alternative approach. Where the Optimism Superchain model relied on ...