In January 2024, significant token unlock events will occur, potentially releasing over $600 million worth of liquidity into the market. Aptos (APT), Injective (INJ), and Optimism (OP) are the first three projects expected to have the highest proportional unlocks. As holidays around the world come to an end tomorrow, crypto projects will begin their major token unlock events. As a result of these unlocks, many tokens previously held under lock will join the circulating supply, which could have negative effects on prices.
The Future of Aptos (APT)
Developments on the Aptos front continue at a rapid pace. A plan has been made to unlock 24.84 million APT tokens on January 12, 2024. These tokens represent 8.08% of the current circulating supply as of the time of writing.
The distribution of these tokens, worth a total of $234.76 million, will be as follows:
- 1.33 million tokens worth $12.60 million for the foundation.
- 11.88 million tokens worth $112.22 million for core contributors.
- 8.42 million tokens worth $79.61 million on behalf of Aptos investors.
- 3.21 million tokens worth $30.34 million for the Aptos community.
A similar event occurred last month. On December 12, 2023, APT unlocked the same amount of tokens. It is known that the price of APT fell by 18.72% in the six days following the unlock. Similarly, a price drop was reflected in the charts following the token unlock in November 2023.
Final Unlock for Injective
The screenshot below shows that 96% of INJ supply has already been unlocked. The final unlock for INJ will take place in the coming days, on January 21, 2024. The project will release 3.67 million INJ tokens worth $136.73 million into the market.
Additionally, the distribution will occur as follows:
- 333,330 tokens worth $12.43 million for advisors.
- 3.33 million INJ tokens worth $124.30 million for the team.
Optimism Unlock and Future
The screenshot below indicates that Optimism is preparing for a significant unlock in the coming days. On January 30, 2024, 24.16 million OP tokens will be unlocked. The distribution of these tokens, worth $87.70 million, will be as follows:
- 12.75 million OP tokens worth $46.28 million for the team.
- 11.41 million OP tokens worth $41.41 million for investors.
Moreover, the project will unlock an additional 333,330 OP tokens over the next 90 days. Considering current market conditions, the value of these tokens is $1.24 million.
Not only these three projects will undergo token unlocks over the next month. It is known that approximately 28 projects will have their token locks released. In addition to all these token unlock events, the market is focused on a bigger event.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may make its final decision on some spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the coming days. As a result of all these events, market volatility for the month could be higher than expected.
