Optimism price surges 7% amid 24 million OP token unlock

• Optimism (OP) price surged more than 7% on Sunday to reach intraday highs of $1.61.
• the Ethereum layer-2 protocol unlocked 24 million OP tokens worth $38 million into circulation on July 30.
• OP price could flip to $1.89 if bulls remain in control in the short term.

Optimism (OP) price surged more than 7% on Sunday to reach intraday highs of $1.61 as at 10:30 am ET. The gains put the Ethereum layer 2 protocol among the top performing crypto assets in the past 24 hours.

Daily trading volume is up 107% from a day ago, according to data from CoinGecko, with this coming even as the optimistic rollup network unlocked 24 million on July 30. 

Interestingly, on-chain data shows Optimism’s transaction volume recently surpassed that of other Ethereum L2 Arbitrum.

OP price prediction after token unlock

The release of more OP into circulation is part of the cryptocurrency’s scheduled unlocks. The latest saw 24 million OP worth $38 million added to circulating supply that currently stands at 679,080,066 OP. 

According to Token Unlocks, Optimism has another 45 token unlocks lined up. How does this unlock reflect in OP’s price?

Optimism’s native token flipped green despite today’s token unlock. But prior to the surge, bearish pressure had seen it decline to lows of $1.44, the rejection having happened when OP/USD touched above $1.64 on July 24.

Meanwhile, the daily chart suggests that bulls have the upper hand with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator rising and the Moving Average Divergence Convergence (MACD) signals potential bullish strength. 

OP price is also above the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), which has acted as support for the past two weeks. If price breaks above $1.64, the next target could be $1.89 and $2.00.

If downside pressure resurfaces, OP price could rely on support at $1.44 and then $1.20.