Do you feel this bull run has more like a bear feeling to it? I’m still convinced that this final bull run leg is imminent. Keep an eye out for the 4th quarter. Once this leg of the bull run gets going, it will get crazy. However, what can make a token even more bearish in the current market? Right, those are token unlocks. They are a recurring phenomenon in the crypto world. The unlocks are like clockwork. A project with halfway-decent tokenomics should have a vesting schedule.
Some altcoins unlock schedules are daily, others are monthly, or per quarter. There are also altcoins that have a yearly unlock. So, these token unlocks can have a negative impact on an altcoins price development. In other words, you need to be aware of these token unlocks. That’s why my team and I keep you updated each month on these imminent unlocks.
1. Aptos ($APT)
So, the first altcoins unlock I’m looking at is Aptos ($APT). This unlock is on 11th September. Aptos is a layer 1 chain that uses the Move developer language. The team’s background is from Meta. There they took part in the now abandoned Diem blockchain development. Like the Sui team, which also uses this Move language for their chain.
Nonetheless, the two chains are different. Aptos is fast, cheap, and scalable. It has already built an impressive ecosystem. Currently, 181 projects are built on Aptos. DeFi, blockchain gaming, and NFTs take a big chunk of this. For example, in TVL, Aptos is the 17th-ranked chain on DeFiLlama.
Aptos accelerates 💥
From technical innovations like Aptos Connect and AptosBFT v4 to broader ecosystem growth, key network metrics over the past year are 🆙
Full report from @blockworksres on Aptos traction and growth ahead 👇 https://t.co/yASzyrc8Qe
— Aptos (@Aptos) September 10, 2024
The current $APT price is $6.13. It has a market cap of almost $3 billion. Aptos ranks #30 spot, measured by market cap. The initial max and total supply were 1 billion $APT. However, there’s now an infinite supply. Currently, the total supply is 1.114 billion $APT and 486 million circulate. That is 34.6% unlocked $APT tokens.
Each month, there’s 2.33% of their market cap added. That’s 11.31 million $APT, which translates to 1.01% of the total supply. At current rates, that’s almost $72 million per month. You can observe small dips each month on the 12th, the day after the unlocks.
The monthly unlocks are as follows,
- Community gets 3.21 million $APT.
- Core contributors receive 3.96 million $APT.
- The Foundation receives 1.33 million $APT.
- Investors get 2.81 million $APT.
2. StarkNet ($STRK)
My next altcoins pick StarkNet. This is a Layer 2 solution on top of Ethereum. So, it offers lower fees, fast transactions, and scalability. All the things that Ethereum lacks.
StarkNet is a zk-rollup. Zk standing for zero knowledge. As you may remember, zk technology processes transactions outside of Ethereum. It batches these transactions and provides the proof to Ethereum. This reduces Ethereum’s load, and it’s also fast and cheap.
Zk technology is when you prove and verify information without showing that information. A simple sample is the ‘Where is Waldo?’ picture. You can show that you know where Waldo is, since you have his picture. However, you only show Waldo, everything else covered by a sheet, 4 times bigger that the picture. So, you don’t know where Waldo is in the picture.
StarkNet has two components.
- Sequencer — They order and batch transactions, and they also propose blocks. Then they submit them to Ethereum. They can handle more TPS (transactions per second) and are cheaper than Ethereum. However, L2 sequencers tend to be centralized. This raises concerns about security and censorship. StarkNet is working on a decentralized sequencer option. See the video below.
- Prover — This is like the Waldo part. It provides a zk proof to Ethereum for the transactions. These are currently also centralized, but StarkNet is working on decentralized options.
Their next token unlock is 15th September. Each month, 63.99 million $STRK tokens unlock. That’s 0.64% of the max supply of 10 billion tokens. This equals $25.75 million per month, at the current $STRK price of 40 cents. However, according to CryptoRank, there are currently 5.46 billion tokens untracked. There’s no data on these tokens, and they can unlock at any moment.
3. Arbitrum ($ARB)
Arbitrum is another Layer 2 solution on Ethereum. It’s also one of the bigger ones. For instance, its market cap is $1 billion higher than StarkNet.
Arbitrum uses Optimistic Rollups. They work differently from zk rollups. I showed you that zk rollups use smart contracts to verify transactions with zk proof. In contrast, Optimistic Rollups consider transactions already valid. It works more like a consensus mechanism. Validators screen out malicious transactions. This kind of rollup moves computation off-chain. However, Arbitrum also works with centralized sequencers, like most L2s.
There are almost 700 protocols on Arbitrum. Combined, they have a TVL of $13.71 billion. This puts them in the top spot of all rollup chains measured by TVL. It also gives them a 40% market share in the L2 sector. That’s more than twice as much as the runner-up, Base, who has a 17.48% market share. See the picture below.
Source: L2Beat
Arbitrum also has monthly unlocks. The next one is 16th September. Each month 92.63 $ARB token unlock. This equals $46 million at the current $ARB price of 50 cents. It has a market cap of $1.7 billion.
Out of the 10 billion max supply $ARB tokens, 3.5 billion tokens are already unlocked. That’s 35% with a monthly addition of 0.93%. These monthly unlocks go to the team, advisors, and investors. We can observe light dips around the 16th each month. According to CryptoRank, Arbitrum also has 4.38 billion untracked tokens. These can unlock at any time.
So, are you aware of these monthly unlocks of altcoins? What are your thoughts on token unlocks?
Disclaimer
The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may be different from yours.
We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments, so please do your due diligence.
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