Optimism (OP) surged more than 7% on Sunday, hitting intraday highs of $1.61 at 10:30 am ET. This made the Ethereum layer-2 protocol one of the top performing crypto assets in the past 24 hours, with daily trading volume up 107% from the day before. On-chain data shows that Optimism’s transaction volume has also surpassed that of other Ethereum L2 protocols.

The surge came even as 24 million OP tokens worth $38 million were unlocked into circulation on July 30. 45 more token unlocks are scheduled, but will it put pressure on OP’s price?

Interestingly, despite the token unlock, the token flipped green. However, prior to the surge, bearish pressure had pushed the price to lows of $1.44 when OP/USD touched above $1.64 on July 24.

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) signalling 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.

However, the token unlock adds only 3.56% of the total supply, and an increase in circulating supply often coincides with a dip in demand and price. If downside pressure resurfaces, OP price could rely on support at $1.44 and then $1.20.

In conclusion, Optimism (OP) saw a surge of more than 7% on Sunday, despite the token unlock. With the bulls in control, the next target could be $1.89 and $2.00. But the token unlock could also lead to negative price pressure, with support at $1.44 and $1.20.