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A Mysterious A16z Tweet Sparked a Rally in Crypto Project Optimism's OP Token
The tweet spurred speculation that the notable venture capital firm could launch its own Optimism-based layer 2 blockchain. A16z crypto’s CTO tweeted: “not an L2.”
By Brandy Betz
Updated May 9, 2023, 4:12 a.m. Published Apr 18, 2023, 9:17 p.m.
The native token of the Optimism blockchain, OP, rallied after an engineer at the crypto arm of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) tweeted out a picture of an orange circle, accompanied by “coming soon.”
coming soon 🟠 pic.twitter.com/8kADUuervL
— ncitron.eth (@NoahCitron) April 18, 2023
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The color of the circle in the tweet matched that commonly associated with the a16z logo. Earlier this year, Coinbase teased the impending announcement of its Optimism-backed layer 2 network – called Base – by first tweeting out a blue circle.
The similarity of the images led to trader speculation that a16z may have plans to launch its own layer 2 blockchain, sending the OP token about 3% higher.
But Eddy Lazzarin, the chief technology officer of a16z crypto, subsequently tweeted “not an L2,” apparently denying that possibility.
🟠🪄 ✨
— Eddy Lazzarin 🟠🔭 (@eddylazzarin) April 18, 2023
(not an L2)
A16z and Paradigm co-led a $150 million funding round for Optimism in March 2022, which valued the Ethereum scaling solution at $1.65 billion.
A16z declined to comment on the speculation when contacted by CoinDesk.
Read more: A16z Highlights Web3 Strength in Its Second ‘State of Crypto’ Report
Update (April 18, 2023, 21:23 UTC): Adds tweet from a16z CTO saying it's "not an L2."
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