Avalanche is expecting a highly positive outcome from its upcoming token release, which is part of a larger trend with approximately $1 billion worth of tokens set to be unlocked in the market. Token Unlocks data reveals that several crypto projects, including Avalanche, Wormhole, Aptos, Sandbox, Arbitrum, Optimism, and others, will release tokens throughout August, with the first three days alone accounting for around $260 million.
Token unlocks serve the purpose of regulating asset supply and preventing market saturation. By gradually releasing tokens, these projects can minimize the risk of significant sell-offs by early investors or team members who hold substantial amounts of the crypto asset.
Of all the projects, Wormhole and Avalanche will have the most substantial token unlocks this month. On August 3, Wormhole, a cross-chain messaging protocol, will release 600 million tokens valued at $151.67 million, representing 33.33% of its circulating supply. Following this, Avalanche will unlock 9.54 million AVAX tokens on August 20, with an approximate value of $251 million, constituting 2.42% of its circulating supply.
The breakdown of the Avalanche token release shows that the Avalanche team will receive 4.5 million AVAX tokens worth $118.53 million, while strategic partners will receive 2.25 million AVAX tokens worth $59.27 million. The remaining tokens will be allocated to the Foundation and distributed through airdrops.
Former Ecosystem Growth Manager at Avalanche, Farid Rached, believes that this planned token unlock will be the most bullish in the project’s history. He emphasizes that it is the final major unlock for both the team and public/private investors.
Other significant token unlocks include Sui releasing 64 million tokens valued at $50 million on August 1, dYdX releasing 8.33 million tokens worth nearly $11 million on an undisclosed date, Aptos unlocking 11.31 million APT tokens worth $74.64 million on August 12, and Sandbox releasing 205.6 million SAND tokens worth $66.75 million on August 14. Additionally, Ethereum’s layer-2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism will collectively unlock over $110 million worth of tokens by August 16 and August 31, respectively.