By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 29th, 2024
The Arbitrum unlock event will begin a series of unlocks that will happen on the 16th of every month for the next four years.
Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum (ARB) will unlock 1.1 billion vested tokens worth $2.32 billion on Saturday, March 16. According to crypto tracker Token Unlocks, the tokens to be unlocked account for about 76% of the ARB circulating supply.
Arbitrum (ARB) Unlock Effect on Token’s Price
The volume of tokens expected to enter the market suggests to members of the Arbitrum community that there will be some impact on ARB’s market price. Consequently, reactions are somewhat polar. While some believe that traders will prefer to take short positions against the token, others plan to sell their tokens in anticipation of a possible price plunge.
The unlock schedule will see about 675.5 million (about $1.37 million as of this writing, released to Arbitrum’s team and advisors. The layer-2 protocol will also release 438.25 tokens, around $894 million, to investors.
Members of the Arbitrum community expecting the token’s price to fall believe that flooding the market in that manner will pump supply and reduce prices. However, one crypto influencer JJcycles believes that the upcoming unlock will be bullish, comparing it to a similar unlock on the Solana blockchain. In a follow up post on X, JJcycles noted an even larger unlock on the alternative Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism.
According to the founder of venture capital Capybara Investments, Tan Hoan, the ARB unlock may not cause holders to quickly dump their tokens. Hoan specifically advised against it but sounded a note of caution. The Capybara founder said that since Arbitrum has “potential for massive growth ahead”, selling tokens now might be unwise. However, he added that the market could become skeptical about a large unlock, which could tank the token’s price.
According to Token Unlocks in an X post from last August, there will be several more ARB unlocks after the upcoming event. The post specified that starting from this month’s event, the Arbitrum network will unlock more tokens on the 16th of every month for the next four years.
Other Exptected Unlock Events
In addition to Arbitrum, there are a few other expected token unlocks. For instance, Aptos (APT) will unlock 24 million tokens, worth around $329 million, which is 6.73% of the platform’s circulating supply. While the Aptos Foundation will receive 1.33 million APT, currently worth 17.8 million, the community allocation is 3.21 million APT, which is over $43 million. In addition, investors will get 8.42 million APT, worth over $112.8 million, while core contributors will receive a heavy tranche of 11.88 million APT, worth more than $151 million.
Previous APT unlocks negatively impacted the token’s price. On December 12, 2023, and January 12, 2024, Aptos unlocked a large number of tokens. Unfortunately, the unlock crashed the price of APT each time, at 17.94% in January and 14.10% in December.
Another expected token unlock is ImmutableX (IMX). The platform will unlock around 34 million tokens worth over $120 million at current prices. The March 22 unlock allocates 8.66 million IMX to private sales, 9.62 million to project development, and 15.91 million to ecosystem development.
Other upcoming unlocks this month include Moonbeam, Euler, and CyberConnect.