Optimism

Optimism held a closed-door meeting with the Ethereum Foundation and South Korea's financial and policy leaders in Seoul this week, ahead of September's flagship Ethereum conference. The meeting, hosted by Ethereum Korea, brought together: - Securities firms - Card companies - Policy finance institutions - Korea's Financial Investment Association This follows Optimism's recent momentum in Korea, including partnerships with Toss (serving 30M+ users) for a won-backed stablecoin proof of concept, and DB Securities building STO and RWA infrastructure on the OP Stack.

OP Labs CEO discussed on the NYSE floor why centralized exchanges are adopting OP Enterprise to bring their operations onchain. **Key developments:** - Exchanges are moving beyond being just trading venues to becoming core infrastructure for institutional digital asset movement - OP Enterprise offers exchanges a managed path to deploy their own chains without handling full infrastructure operations - A top-3 US exchange retained $75M in sequencer revenue in H2 2025 by running its own OP Stack chain **Technical improvements:** - Partnership with Base to bring native account abstraction to OP Stack - Focus on making transactions faster, cheaper, safer, and simpler - Integrated ecosystem includes RPCs, oracles, bridges, indexers, wallets, compliance, and custody solutions **Business model:** - Organizations own 100% of sequencer revenue instead of paying rent to third parties - Custom fee structures and block space control - Teams can focus on product development rather than infrastructure management The platform enables enterprises to launch production blockchains with pre-integrated infrastructure components, reducing deployment time.

**Privacy Boost is now deployed on OP Mainnet and Soneium**, marking a significant step in bringing confidential transactions to the OP Stack. The deployment sets the stage for **Toss to run a won-linked stablecoin trial** reaching approximately 30 million users in South Korea. Toss, which handles financial transactions for two-thirds of South Korea, partnered with Optimism to explore blockchain-based digital finance infrastructure. **Key features of Privacy Boost:** - Encrypts transfers and contract logic while maintaining transaction auditability for compliance - Supports pre-confirmations, enabling private transfers within one second - Provides institutions with privacy while allowing regulators to maintain oversight The three-month proof of concept will test whether the Won can settle onchain while meeting Korea's strict compliance, privacy, and control requirements. This represents a practical test case for **tokenized finance with built-in confidentiality** from the start. More details: [Cointelegraph coverage](https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-toss-partners-optimism-won-stablecoins) | [Optimism blog](https://optimism.io/blog/two-thirds-of-south-korea-runs-its-money-through-toss-now-toss-is-exploring-putting-the-won)

**Optimism partners with Toss to explore blockchain-based finance in South Korea** Toss, the financial super-app used by over 30 million South Koreans (two-thirds of the population), has signed an MOU with Optimism to test putting the Korean Won onchain. **Key details:** - Three-month proof of concept launching with Optimism, PrivacyBoost, and Toss - Testing a Won-backed stablecoin built on the OP Stack - Focus on meeting Korea's compliance, privacy, and control requirements - Toss handles banking, payments, investing, credit, and taxes for users The pilot will determine whether money can settle onchain while maintaining regulatory standards. If successful, this could establish the OP Stack as infrastructure for compliant digital finance at national scale. [Read the full announcement](https://optimism.io/blog/two-thirds-of-south-korea-runs-its-money-through-toss-now-toss-is-exploring-putting-the-won) | [Cointelegraph coverage](https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-toss-partners-optimism-won-stablecoins)

Centralized exchanges (CEXs) have quietly become significant distributors of onchain activity, according to a new analysis from Optimism. The shift represents a notable evolution in the crypto ecosystem. While decentralized exchanges (DEXs) were designed to eliminate intermediaries, CEXs have adapted by facilitating onchain transactions at scale. **Key developments:** - CEXs now process substantial volumes of onchain transfers and settlements - Traditional exchanges are bridging users to Layer 2 networks and DeFi protocols - The trend challenges assumptions about the CEX vs DEX divide This development suggests the future may involve coexistence rather than competition between centralized and decentralized platforms. CEXs bring regulatory compliance and user familiarity, while enabling access to onchain infrastructure. Read the full analysis: [Optimism Blog](https://www.optimism.io/blog/how-centralized-exchanges-quietly-became-crypto-s-biggest-onchain-distributors)

**Regulatory clarity is accelerating enterprise blockchain adoption in Japan.** Kyle Jenke discusses Mitsui's deployment on OP Mainnet, highlighting how supportive regulatory frameworks are making Japan a key market for institutional crypto adoption. **Key developments:** - Mitsui, a major Japanese conglomerate, has deployed on OP Mainnet - Japan's clear regulatory approach is encouraging enterprise movement into blockchain - The country's crypto accounts surpassed 11 million, demonstrating rapid adoption - Japan's pioneering regulatory framework is fostering safe and sustainable crypto growth The conversation with Genzio Co. emphasizes that when regulators actively encourage adoption rather than create barriers, enterprises respond with concrete deployments and infrastructure investments.

The OP Stack is enabling a new era of blockchain customization, according to insights from @karl_dot_tech. **Key Points:** - Customization allows blockchains to be tailored for specific use cases and requirements - The OP Stack provides the infrastructure to make this customization technically feasible - This represents the next significant wave of innovation in crypto development The ability to customize blockchains opens new possibilities for developers to create specialized solutions rather than one-size-fits-all networks.

The **Scaling Summit** brought together founders and builders to address critical industry challenges: - **User retention** in an attention-scarce market - **Product differentiation** in a crowded builder landscape - **Compliance frameworks** that balance regulation with innovation momentum - **RWA and stablecoin adoption** beyond builder narratives toward mainstream use The event focused on practical solutions rather than theoretical discussions, with participants examining how to move from concept to global implementation.

The **Superchain ecosystem** now handles **14.1% of all cryptocurrency transactions**, representing nearly **2x growth** in just five months. **Key metrics:** - $17.8B secured across 30+ chains - 24M+ daily transactions - $6.2B in stablecoins onchain Major chains include Base, Celo, OP Mainnet, Unichain, World Chain, and others building on Ethereum's scaling infrastructure. This growth demonstrates the **increasing adoption** of Layer 2 solutions as users seek faster, cheaper transactions while maintaining Ethereum's security. [View complete Superchain statistics](https://stats.optimism.io/)

**Fusaka is now live on Ethereum mainnet**, delivering the infrastructure needed for Layer 2 scaling. The upgrade introduces **PeerDAS**, which allows validators to sample small data chunks instead of downloading full blobs. This reduces storage requirements from 40-100 GB to just sampled shards. **Key improvements:** - More blob capacity for rollups through Blob Parameter-Only forks - Gas limit increase from 45M to 60M - Lower data availability costs for L2s - Reduced fees for end users The upgrade emerged from **cross-ecosystem collaboration** between Ethereum core developers, client teams, Base, Soneium, OP Labs, and Sunnyside. Teams worked together to solve L2 scaling bottlenecks that were causing rising fees. **For builders:** OP Stack chains now have more throughput headroom, lower L1 data costs, and a predictable scaling roadmap. The implementation included extensive testing through devnets that pushed different client combinations under real rollup workloads. Read the full technical details: [Optimism blog post](https://www.optimism.io/blog/fusaka-is-live-scaling-optimism-and-the-superchain)