In May, there will be a release of locked crypto assets worth over $3.1 billion. Two notable projects, Sui and Pyth Network, will each unlock over $1 billion in tokens. Locking crypto assets is a strategy used to ensure long-term commitment to a project. By preventing early investors or team members from quickly selling their tokens and leaving the project, the supply and demand balance is maintained.
Among the projects releasing locked assets, the Layer-1 blockchain platform Sui will unlock the largest amount. On May 31, nearly one billion tokens will be unlocked, including those held by Series A and B investors, early contributors, the Mysten Labs treasury, and the community reserve. At the time of writing, the value of these tokens was approximately $1.15 billion.
Pyth Network, a market data platform, will unlock over two billion tokens on May 20. These tokens will be used for protocol development, ecosystem growth, publisher rewards, and private sale investors. The market value of the released tokens is approximately $1.1 billion, with each token valued at around $0.51.
In addition to Sui and Pyth Network, several other projects will witness token unlocks totaling over $700 million. These projects include Avalanche, Aptos, Arbitrum, Starknet, Optimism, and Immutable.
Aptos will release 11.3 million APT tokens worth $101 million on May 12. These tokens will be allocated to the foundation, community, core participants, and investors. Avalanche will unlock approximately 9.5 million AVAX tokens worth about $321 million on May 22. These tokens will be distributed to strategic partners, the foundation, team, and for an airdrop event.
On May 16, the Layer-2 blockchain network Arbitrum will release ARB tokens worth $95 million. These tokens will be allocated to the project team and investors. In March, Arbitrum distributed $2.3 billion worth of tokens to its team and investors. The Starknet team will unlock $84 million worth of tokens on May 15, while Immutable will unlock $56 million worth of tokens on May 17 for ecosystem and project development.
The Layer-2 scaling solution Optimism will also unlock 24.1 million OP tokens on May 29, worth approximately $70 million. In May 2023, Optimism released $587 million worth of tokens for early contributors and investors.
It is important to note that the information provided in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware of the high volatility and risks associated with cryptocurrencies and conduct their own research.