In June, a staggering amount of around $875 million worth of locked cryptocurrencies is poised to enter the markets as the vesting periods for over 30 blockchain projects approach their culmination. The practice of crypto vesting is implemented to prevent abrupt flooding of tokens by project team members or early investors, a phenomenon that can exert significant downward pressure on token values.
Among the prominent projects releasing their tokens in June include Aptos (APT), Arbitrum (ARB), Starknet (STRK), and Sui (SUI). Notably, the Ethereum layer-2 platform Arbitrum plans to distribute 92.65 million ARB tokens valued at $105.6 million on June 16.
A substantial portion of the unlocked tokens, amounting to nearly $64 million, will be allocated to the project team and advisers, while the remaining $41.6 million will be made available to investors. Aptos is expected to unlock 11.1 million APT tokens equivalent to $102.6 million in June, with distributions designated for its foundation, community, core contributors, and investors. Similarly, Starknet will release 64 million STRK tokens valued at $78 million on June 15, primarily targeting early contributors and investors.
Additionally, Optimism is set to unlock 31.34 million OP tokens, valued at around $78 million, following a similar release in May. Sui also plans to unlock 65 million tokens worth $66 million on June 1 for its Series A and Series B investors, early contributors, and community reserve.
These unlocking events are occurring after a period of notable token distributions, suggesting potential market fluctuations as these tokens become tradable.
