In May 2025, tokens worth almost $5 billion will be unlocked. Understanding and analyzing the timing of tokens entering the market allows you to predict the price movement of such assets.
This will amount to $15 billion per quarter. and it accounts for approximately 0.65% of the total crypto market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, according to Criptorank data as of May 10, 2025.
Early investors in crypto projects such as Sui, Aptos, Optimism, Arbitrum, Celestia, Worldcoin, and many others receive previously unavailable assets at some point, which theoretically can put pressure on the market with one-time sales.
Unlocking tokens is unlocking cryptocurrencies that were previously blocked according to the economic model of the cryptoproject. These tokens may include assets intended for project developers, early adopters, and investors.
Since 2017, at the time of the ICO boom, thousands of projects have appeared on the cryptocurrency market, raising millions of dollars to develop and promote their products, blockchain networks and applications.
The influx of new projects and investors into the market has led to the development of competition. As a result, there is a need to develop its own rules necessary to improve the quality of the investment process for all market participants.
ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is an analog of IPO or crowdfunding, only with high risks, but also with the opportunity to make a big profit, where the tokens sold are analogous to shares of traditional companies.
In the absence of its own rules and metrics, the crypto market has partially adopted the tools of stock markets, describing mechanisms, rules and clear conditions for project teams and investors.
Tokenomics, that is, the economic model of the project, has become the main tool in terms of raising capital and entering the open market.
Tokenomics is a set of rules describing the economic model of a project based on its native token, as well as clear boundaries for the issue and distribution of tokens among project participants and its investors.
In a traditional market, these boundaries for the distribution or issue of shares can be determined by the level of the company's economic achievements, financial or production indicators. But in the crypto market, time turned out to be the most popular indicator.
For example, for early investors, they can set a vesting period (token blocking) for a period of 1 year or enable periodic token unblocking, say, once a month for three years.
Thus, when a project enters the market, the circulating (i.e., marketable) supply of its tokens is often limited. One period may be allocated for developers to unlock tokens, and another for investors.
Theoretically, this practice assumes that employees, investors and early users are given a certain period of time to create demand for tokens, so as not to create pressure on the price at the time of the start of trading.
This is necessary due to the fact that early participants and investors of the project receive tokens for free or at a significant discount.
For example, the Pantera Capital cryptocurrency fund bought Toncoin in May 2024 at 40% below the market price of the coin at that time. However, the fund has limited access to tokens (vesting) for a period of one year, after which the company will be able to withdraw coins in batches for several years.
Thus, most modern projects have clear periods of vesting, that is, freezing or blocking some part of the assets until certain conditions occur.
Usually, the unlocking schedule is initially determined in the tokenomics of the project, and any market participant can get acquainted with when a particular group of token holders will receive their crypto assets.
Types of unblocks
Depending on the goals and capabilities, the project teams choose a convenient schedule for unlocking tokens, which includes two main types: linear and cliff-unlocking.
Cliff is the period of time when tokens will be blocked after listing on the crypto exchange.
Listing cryptocurrencies is the process of adding a token or coin to any trading platform.
Linear unlocking is an unblocking schedule that represents the unlocking of a certain number of tokens in a linear manner. This can be a daily, weekly, monthly, or other schedule.
Cliff unlocking is a type of unlocking that implies that the tokens are unlocked in a large "batch" at the same time.
In reality, projects rarely use any one option and include mixed types of unlocking in tokenomics, where some participants unlock through a cliff, and a linear schedule is provided for others.
How to track unblocks
The token unlock event is important information for any user or investor due to the fact that it can have an impact on the price of the token.
Since blockchain technology is an open registry of information with the entire transaction history, accessible to anyone from anywhere in the world and at any time, the status of tokens held in custody can be tracked online.
This can be done independently, if you have the necessary competencies, or using specialized services such as Token Unlock or Cryptorank.
Such platforms allow you not only to monitor the schedule, but also to see who the tokens that are being prepared for unlocking are intended for. They also show the dollar value of upcoming unlocks and the percentage of the project's circulating token supply.
