Locked crypto assets valued at more than $3.1 billion will be released in May, with notable projects such as Sui and Pyth Network each unlocking over $1 billion in tokens.
Locking crypto ownership is a strategy employed to ensure long-term commitment to a crypto project. By locking their earned crypto tokens, early investors and team members are prevented from hastily selling their tokens and abandoning the project, thus maintaining a balance between supply and demand.
What to Expect in May?
Among the projects set to release locked crypto assets, the Layer-1 blockchain platform Sui will unlock the largest amount. On May 31, nearly one billion tokens will be unlocked by investors from Series A and B, early contributors, the Mysten Labs treasury, and the community reserve. The tokens were valued at approximately $1.15 billion at the time of writing.
For Pyth Network, a market data platform, May will see the second largest token unlock. On May 20, over two billion tokens will be unlocked for protocol development, ecosystem growth, publisher rewards, and private sale investors. The market value of the released tokens is estimated to be approximately $1.1 billion. Additionally, projects like Avalanche, Aptos, Arbitrum, Starknet, Optimism, and Immutable will witness token unlocks totaling over $700 million.
Other Notable Events
On May 12, Aptos will release 11.3 million APT tokens worth $101 million to its foundation, community, core participants, and investors. Avalanche will unlock approximately 9.5 million AVAX tokens worth about $321 million for strategic partners, foundation, team, and an airdrop event on May 22.
The Layer-2 blockchain network Arbitrum will further release ARB tokens worth $95 million on May 16. These tokens will be allocated to the project team and investors. In March 2021, Arbitrum distributed $2.3 billion worth of tokens to its team and investors. Additionally, the Starknet team will unlock $84 million worth of tokens for investors and early contributors on May 15, while Immutable will unlock $56 million worth of crypto tokens for ecosystem and project development on May 17.
On May 29, the Layer-2 scaling solution Optimism will unlock 24.1 million OP tokens, which are worth approximately $70 million at current market prices. In May 2023, Optimism released $587 million worth of OP tokens for early contributors and investors.
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and carry risks, and should conduct their own research.
