NEW DELHI (CoinChapter.com) — Several crypto projects have upcoming token unlocks scheduled for the week beginning Jan. 29.
Crypto projects usually lock up a portion of their token supply to ensure that early adopters and investors do not offload large quantities of a token once the project goes live. However, the developers unlock these tokens gradually over a period of time.
Despite the slow disbursal, market participants often view token unlocks with apprehension since traders could sell their tokens to book profits. More often than not, token unlock events have preceded bearish times for a token.
Optimism And DYDX Lead The Upcoming Token Unlock Event
Etheruem layer-2 blockchain Optimism (OP) and decentralized exchange dydX (DYDX) have massive token unlocks lined up.
Optimism will unlock nearly 24.2 million OP tokens (about 2.52% of its circulating supply) on Jan. 30. The total value of the upcoming unlock is close to $75 million, per TokenUnlocks data.
The previous token unlock for Optimism tokens occurred on Jan. 9 earlier this year. Though OP prices crashed on Jan. 12, the likely reason was the wider market behavior, not just the token unlock.
Yet, OP hodlers would be closely watching the token unlock. Should OP prices start falling, it might create FUD, resulting in newbie traders dumping their holdings and increasing the selling pressure. However, OP price remains bullish, spiking over 13% since Jan. 25 to reach a daily high near $3.1 on Jan. 29.
dYdX will unlock 33.33 million DYDX tokens on Feb. 1, which amounts to nearly 10.6% of its total circulating supply. The total value of the upcoming token unlock is $91 million.
Per data provider TokenUnlocks, the previous DYDX token unlock event was on Jan. 24, in which the project released 1.58 million tokens. Immediately following the unlock, DYDX price dropped nearly 3% on Jan. 25.
Other Crypto Projects With Token Unlocks This Week
Apart from Optimism and dYdX, some other crypto projects have token unlocks lined up for the coming week.
Nym Mixnet is a blockchain platform that provides users with internet privacy infrastructure. The project has a token unlock event lined up for Jan. 31 to release 3.13 million NYM tokens worth $598,000 into the market.
Over 70% of the project’s tokens are already unlocked, and the upcoming token unlock would amount to nearly 0.5% of NYM’s total circulating supply.
Blockchain platform SUI also has a token unlock lined up, with 4 million SUI tokens worth $5.56 million set to release on Jan. 31. Moreover, lending protocol Euler will unlock over 104,000 EUL tokens on Feb. 1. The team at Euler has already unlocked over 81% of its total supply.
Transaction privacy solution Tornado Cash has an upcoming token unlock event lined up for Feb. 1, which would release nearly 92,000 TORN tokens into the market.
Polkadot-based DeFi platform Acala also has a token unlock event on Feb. 1. The upcoming event would see the Acala governance unlock over 27 million ACA tokens worth nearly $2.3 million.
All the upcoming unlocks could, theoretically, increase the bearish pressure in the crypto market. However, token recipients might wait for the markets to become bullish before dumping their tokens.
