Mode wallet

What is Mode (MODE)?

Mode runs as an Ethereum layer 2 inside the Optimism Superchain, built on the OP Stack and settling back to Ethereum. MODE is its governance token: it carries voting weight over how the network's onboarding and developer incentive mechanisms are configured, and it is not the coin that pays for transactions. Gas on the Mode chain is ETH, the same as on the other OP Stack networks.

That split confuses people often enough to be worth stating plainly. Holding MODE does not make your transactions cheaper or feeless anywhere, and an empty ETH balance will stop you moving MODE just as it stops anything else.

The token itself is issued as an ERC-20 and exists in more than one place: on Ethereum, and as bridged representations on chains connected to the Superchain. Balances on each chain are independent, and an amount held on one network is invisible to a contract on another until it is bridged across.

Supported networks in Tangem (3): Base, Ethereum, Optimism, each with its own balance shown separately and the outgoing network named on the transfer screen, so you can confirm it before signing.

Governance weight is the kind of thing you hold for years and touch rarely. Tangem generates the private key inside the card's chip, where it stays for the life of the wallet; a second card from the same set restores access if the first is lost, and writing down a seed phrase is an option rather than a step you have to complete. A MODE position can sit untouched in a drawer for a long time without that being a risk you took on.