Optimism withdrawal processing changes

What happened

OP Labs proposed withdrawal-processing changes on November 4, 2026, with conditional mainnet execution planned for November 16.

What changed

Relayers would retry messenger withdrawals when finalization fails because the messenger call lacks gas. Operators would use ETHLockbox for chain-specific pause checks.

What did not change

OP Labs states that existing proofs on valid games and pending withdrawals remain valid. The named chains already use ETHLockbox, so their ETH custody stays unchanged.

Confirmed

• OP Labs named OP Mainnet, Ink, Soneium and Unichain for the proposed mainnet execution.
• OP Labs proposed allowing anyone to delete proofs tied to dispute games that challengers won or administrators blacklisted.
• OP Labs planned Sepolia execution for November 9, 2026, and the governance veto deadline for November 11.
• OP Labs stated that mainnet execution depends on governance approval, testing and completion of the audit fix review.

Still open

• The proposal establishes no mainnet execution.
• OP Labs had not published the final audit report in the supplied proposal.
• The mainnet date could change if testing or the audit fix review identifies problems.

What it means for an advisor

• Ketju should review the Optimism bridge memo’s withdrawal failure handling and pause dependencies before the proposed deployment.
• Ketju should confirm execution and valid withdrawal retries before describing the changes as operative.