A token unlock is the date when locked tokens become tradable. Projects give tokens to teams, early investors and the community, but lock them for a period so they cannot all be sold at once.

Cliff and linear unlocks

A cliff releases a large batch at once. A linear unlock releases small amounts every day or month.

How to judge one

Compare the unlock to circulating supply. An unlock of 1 percent is usually absorbed. One of 15 percent is a real risk. Also check who receives the tokens. Team and investor tokens are likelier to be sold than community rewards.

Where to find schedules

Data sites such as Tokenomist publish upcoming unlock calendars.

Token unlocks this week

Token unlocks this week are published in public calendars. This page tells you how to read them, and the list below shows any unlock we covered recently.

Three checks before reacting

  1. Size of the unlock as a percent of circulating supply.
  2. Who receives the tokens.
  3. Whether price already fell into the date.

Background

New to unlocks? Read What Is a Token Unlock? first.

A worked example

Imagine a token with 100 million coins circulating and an unlock of 5 million. The unlock adds 5 percent to supply. If the recipients are early investors who bought cheaply, some may sell. If the recipients are a community reward pool, much of it may sit unsold. The same number can mean very different things.

Why price sometimes rises into an unlock

Traders who expect a drop sell short ahead of time. When the unlock passes with no big sale, those shorts close and price can bounce. This is why we report what happened after the date, not only the date.

Token unlock stories

Questions readers ask

Does every unlock drop the price?

No. Price often falls before the date as traders anticipate it.

Do unlocks matter for large coins?

Much less than for small ones, because their supply is already mostly circulating.