Token Unlock

A token unlock is the scheduled release of previously locked tokens — typically allocations belonging to a project's team, investors, or foundation — making them transferable and sellable for the first time. Unlocks are the milestones of a vesting schedule: a project might launch with only a small fraction of its supply circulating, with the rest released in tranches over months or years.

A concrete example: a project whose early investors bought tokens at a steep discount might have those tokens locked for a one-year cliff, then unlocked monthly over two years. Each unlock date, a known quantity of tokens moves from locked to circulating supply. Traders watch these dates closely — services like Tokenomist (formerly TokenUnlocks) publish calendars — because holders who bought cheaply may sell into the market once they can, and prices often soften in anticipation.

A common misconception is that an unlock automatically crashes the price — the market can front-run well-publicized unlocks, recipients may choose to hold or sell gradually via off-market deals, and a small unlock relative to daily trading volume can pass unnoticed. What matters is the unlock's size relative to circulating supply and liquidity, who is receiving it, and at what cost basis. For evaluating any token, the unlock schedule is core due diligence: a low market cap with a huge locked supply overhanging it is a very different asset than its price chart suggests.