Crypto Market Braces for $162 Million Token Unlock Wave

Several prominent crypto projects with unlocking schedules have approached or exceeded the 50% mark in token unlocks. The crypto community is closely monitoring these events to gauge potential challenges and opportunities presented by such substantial token releases.

For instance, Axie Infinity, a leader in the blockchain gaming sector, currently has 35.36 million AXS tokens (13.10%) locked, while 210.85 million AXS tokens (78.09%) are unlocked. This high percentage of unlocked tokens likely contributes to AXS’s lackluster one-year performance, with the token trading at $5.74, reflecting a 10.40% loss over the past year.

Interestingly, on Tuesday, Axie Infinity plans to distribute $12.23 million worth of AXS tokens in staking rewards to community members.

Furthermore, ApeCoin, associated with the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, has 31.71% of APE tokens locked, while 682.90 million APE tokens (68.29%) are unlocked.

With APE trading at $0.7549, the asset has fared far worse, suffering a 28% loss in the last 30 days and a more substantial 63.73% decline since last year. This project will release over $10 million in APE coins on Wednesday.

Likewise, the decentralized exchange aggregator 1INCH has 102.72 million 1INCH tokens locked, with a notably larger portion, 1.29 billion 1INCH tokens, representing 85.69%, in circulation. Notably, 1INCH is up by over 23% in one year, trading at $0.422.

Similarly, Coin98, a multi-chain DeFi platform, has 203.29 million C98 tokens (20.33%) locked, while 796.71 million C98 tokens (79.67%) are unlocked. Despite the significant unlock, the token has posted a positive gain over the past year.

While these highlighted projects have surpassed the 50% threshold, several other crypto projects have ongoing unlock schedules and will inject over $162 million into the crypto market this week.

Leading the charge is Arbitrum (ARB), which will unlock about 2.87% of its circulating supply, worth over $58.5 million, on Tuesday to its founders, team members, and private investors. Since its inception, this project has unlocked only 30.53% of its available supply.

Starknet (STRK) follows closely, set to unlock 4.92% of its supply, worth $35.7 million, today to team members and private investors. The prominent Ethereum layer-two Optimism (OP) will release $14.10 million worth of OP tokens today, which will be distributed to community members.

While token unlocks can create short-term selling pressure and volatility, they also present the opportunity for increased liquidity and broader distribution of tokens. As the crypto industry matures, investors and analysts will continue to closely monitor these events.