Overview
Optim Finance is a DeFi project whose Liquidity Bonds are designed to let ADA holders lend out the staking rights on their ADA in exchange for interest. Stake pool operators and projects use its bond market to borrow delegation (ADA staked to a pool, which raises its chance of earning rewards) without buying the ADA themselves1. It works a bit like renting out a parking space: the owner keeps the spot, and the renter pays for a set term of use.
Optim Finance runs on Cardano and is governed by the Optim DAO, a group in which holders of the O token vote on proposals2. Its second main product, OADA, was a token designed to track the value of ADA3. On 13 September 2026, Optim said a Splash pool that supported OADA had been exploited, that swapping OADA into ADA was not possible, and that the protocol was paused and any and all liquidity removed4. On 9 October 2026, it opened a claims portal for holders of OADA, sOADA (staked OADA), and O, giving them ten weeks to submit claims, with distributions to follow at the end of that period5.
Key Features
- Interest for lending out staking rights. On Liquidity Bonds, a lending market for staking rights, borrowers pay interest to rent the staking rights of lenders' ADA for a fixed term, choose where that ADA is delegated, and receive its staking rewards6.
- ADA held by the contract, not the borrower. A smart contract (a program that runs on the blockchain) locks each lender's ADA until the bond matures7. Borrowers never take custody of the lent ADA6.
- Bond positions that can change hands. Lenders receive Bond Tokens that stand for their share of a bond. The tokens can be traded, and whoever holds them at maturity redeems the ADA plus interest7.
- Independent security reviews. Tweag audited Optim Finance's Liquidity Bonds, and MLabs audited the fixes that followed8. Anastasia Labs audited the OADA core system9.
- A side network for sending and swapping. Leviathan, Optim's layer 2 (a separate network that bundles transactions and settles them on Cardano), opened a mainnet beta in August 2026 where users could send funds and swap tokens on a built-in exchange, paying fees in OADA10.
What to Expect
Under the Liquidity Bonds design, a lender chooses a borrow offer, which sets the bond's duration and interest, and deposits ADA into it. That ADA stays locked in the contract until the bond matures, and Bond Tokens are then redeemed for the ADA plus the interest earned7. Stake pool operators and projects sit on the other side. They create a borrow offer, pay interest into it, and point the borrowed ADA at the pool they choose6.
OADA worked differently. Anyone could mint it one-for-one with ADA and stake it as sOADA, the version that collected the system's yield. There was no direct way to turn OADA back into ADA, so holders swapped it through an OADA-to-ADA pool on Splash, a Cardano exchange3.
Visitors who want the details will find documentation on bonds, OADA, and Leviathan, plus a DAO voting site for O token holders. Optim's homepage also describes Strategy Vaults, a planned product for automated deposit vaults11.
