StarkWare, announced changes to the Starknet (STRK) token unlock program following concerns that the original tokenomics process would allow individual Starknet users to exit the ecosystem. The changes will see a more gradual token unlock program for initial contributors and investors, replacing a larger unlock initially planned within two months with smaller, periodic token unlocks over three years.
Starknet Team Revises Token Unlock Plan
Starknet developer StarkWare, stated in a February 22 post that after recent feedback, they decided to make the token unlock timeline more gradual. According to the revised program, approximately $125.5 million worth of 64 million STRK tokens, which is 0.64% of the total supply of 10 billion, will be unlocked on April 15.
The unlocking process will continue with 64 million STRK per month until March 15 of the following year. Then, for the next two years until March 15, 2027, the amount will increase to 127 million STRK per month. Initially, more than 1.3 billion STRK tokens, covering about 13% of the total supply valued at over $2.5 billion, were set to be unlocked just two months after the launch on February 20, on April 15. The StarkWare team commented on the issue:
“According to the new unlock plan, the lock on 580 million tokens held by early contributors and investors will be lifted by the end of 2024, compared to 2 billion tokens in the previous program.”
STRK Airdrop Event
The initially addressed unlock program created a controversial process for Starknet users and market commentators who claimed it would allow investors to use individual Starknet users as exit liquidity due to the short timeline.
In the two days following the launch, STRK fell about 60% from its February 20 peak of $4.41 to below $1.90. Shortly after StarkWare’s latest announcement, STRK rose above $2 and showed an approximate 5% increase on the last day according to CoinGecko.
During the STRK airdrop event on February 20, there were 700 million STRK available for more than 1.3 million wallets, and significant early buying was seen with 45 million STRK in the first one and a half hours after the start. According to Voyager data, more than 436 million STRK have been claimed by eligible parties so far, which corresponds to approximately 94% of the total STRK currently available for distribution. According to DefiLlama, Starknet’s total value locked also reached nine figures for the first time and more than doubled in the last 24 hours, reaching $118 million.
