Aptos, a Layer-1 blockchain network, will conclude its four-year vesting schedule for core contributors and early backers on October 12, reducing its scheduled monthly APT token releases by approximately 60%.
End of early backer and contributor vesting
The final tranche for both core contributors and early backers was distributed on September 12, 2026. According to the Aptos Foundation, this coincides with the fourth anniversary of its mainnet launch in October 2022, marking the official end of the vesting cycle.
At network genesis, Aptos allocated 190 million APT to core contributors and 134.78 million APT to early backers, representing a combined 324.78 million tokens, or 32.48% of the initial 1 billion APT supply. These allocations were subject to a 12-month lockup, followed by monthly vesting over the next 36 months.
Each month, 11.31 million APT were released, of which 6.77 million went to core contributors and early backers. With the vesting program ending, only 4.54 million APT per month will be distributed, directed to the Community and Aptos Foundation pools until 2032. These pools each disburse 1/120 of their remaining tokens monthly.
The transition reduces annual token releases from approximately 135.7 million APT to 54.5 million. The Aptos Foundation confirmed this 60% reduction in an earlier tokenomics update, forecasting that its grant distributions will fall by more than half from 2026 to 2027.
Currently, 331.69 million APT remain locked in the Community and Foundation vesting pools. As of September 30, Aptos’ circulating supply stood at 871.02 million APT, while the overall supply reached nearly 1.2 billion APT.
Staking rewards and supply dynamics
Staking is now the main source of new APT tokens entering circulation. The network’s annual staking reward rate has dropped from 5.19% to 2.6%, resulting in approximately 19.8 million new APT minted per year. Around 763 million APT, or 63% of the total supply, is currently staked with network validators. Unstaking tokens requires a waiting period of up to 14 days.
All transaction fees on Aptos are burned to reduce supply pressure. From its launch until mid-September 2026, the network burned approximately 1.9 million APT through transaction fee destruction.
A recent overhaul led to a tenfold increase in gas fees, while stablecoin transfers on Aptos remain low-cost at roughly $0.00014 per transfer.
A hard cap of 2.1 billion APT governs the network’s tokenomics. This cap was established after Proposal #183 passed onchain, with 335.2 million APT voting in support and about 1,500 in opposition.
| Metric | Pre-October 2026 | Post-October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly APT release | 11.31 million | 4.54 million |
| Annual APT release | 135.7 million | 54.5 million |
| Staking reward rate | 5.19% | 2.6% |
At launch, Aptos minted 1 billion APT, and staking has since produced another 196 million tokens. With the hard cap in place, approximately 904 million APT can still be introduced into the ecosystem.
The Aptos Foundation announced that it will lock and stake 210 million APT on a permanent basis. This stake, comprising roughly 37% of the Foundation’s mainnet holdings, will not be sold or distributed. Instead, rewards from the stake will fund ongoing Foundation operations.
Institutional adoption and real-world assets
Aptos currently hosts around $723 million in real-world assets. Major financial institutions, including Franklin Templeton and BlackRock, have launched tokenized fund products on the network. In January, Bitnomial rolled out the first regulated APT futures contracts in the United States.
Aptos is a Layer-1 blockchain focused on high-throughput and low-latency transactions, developed by former Meta engineers.
Mini dictionary: Bitnomial, a Chicago-based exchange, specializes in regulated crypto derivatives, offering futures and options contracts for assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and now Aptos (APT).
