Unlock (English). unlock) is the unlocking of tokens that were previously frozen under the terms of investment rounds or other programs to attract financing.
Usually the team carefully works out tokenomics so as not to cause a lot of selling pressure at various stages of the unlock and thereby not bring down the price of the token. However, some factors — for example, a lack of liquidity or profit-taking by early investors immediately after the tokens are unlocked — can seriously affect the asset’s quotes.
The BeInCrypto editors have selected 5 important unlocks to watch next week.
1. Aptos (APT)
Unlock Date: December 12 Number of Tokens Unlocked: 24,840,000 APT Current Circulating Supply: 279,045,403 APT
While Aptos' layer 1 blockchain is definitely one of the most successful projects this year, it has regularly come under criticism from the crypto community for its tokenomics, which is largely dominated by venture capital.. Most of the APT supply — more than 80% — is still blocked. Unlocks will occur every month for the next ten years. The tokens released on December 12 will be distributed among the Aptos Foundation, early investors and community members.
2. CyberConnect (CYBER)
Unlock Date: December 15 Number of Tokens Unlocked: 1,260,000 CYBER Current Circulating Supply: 14,821,350 CYBER
CyberConnect is a decentralized social graph protocol built on the BNB Smart Chain blockchain. It helps create and manage social connections between users and projects across platforms. The native token СYBER allows holders to buy CyberID, vote on issues related to improving the protocol, and pay transaction fees. The tokens unlocked next week will be intended for participants in the public round and the project treasury.
3. Filecoin (FIL)
Unlock Date: December 15 Number of Tokens Unlocked: 5,450,000 FIL Current Circulating Supply: 397,870 FIL
Filecoin is an infrastructure project focused on decentralized data storage with built-in economic incentives for users. The company behind it, Protocol Labs, is known for creating the IPFS network communication protocol for distributed file storage and launching the popular crowdsale platform CoinList.
The next FIL unlock will take place on December 15th — the tokens unlocked on this day will be distributed between the Protocol Labs team and the Filecoin Foundation.
4. Uniswap (UNI)
Unlock date: December 16 Number of tokens unlocked: 8,330,000 UNI Current circulating supply: 479,950,000 UNI
Uniswap is one of the most popular decentralized crypto exchanges on the market. The project operates on the blockchain of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization, Ethereum, and ranks first in the top 10 decentralized crypto exchanges in terms of trading volume.. Unfrozen UNI on December 16 will be at the disposal of the project’s advisors, team and investors.
5. ApeCoin (APE)
Unlock Date: December 17 Number of Tokens Unlocked: 15,380,000 APE Current Circulating Supply: 368,593,750 APE
ApeCoin is the native token of Yuga Labs' Ape ecosystem, which includes one of the most popular NFT collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club. Typically, APE reacts to unlocks by falling — however, given the renewed interest of users in non-fungible tokens in general and BAYC in particular, the next drawdown may not be so large.