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Pyth and Avalanche will unlock over $1 billion in tokens this week
Services network Oracle Pyth saw its supply of circulating tokens grow by more than 105% on Monday, while layer 1 blockchain network Avalanche will unlock $369 million worth of AVAX tokens on Wednesday.
Cryptographic protocols lock their tokens, in part to prevent large-scale sales during the project’s early stages.
(Basil James/Unsplash)
Posted May 20, 2024 at 6:05pm EST.
The week of May 20 will see services network Oracle Pyth and layer 1 blockchain network Avalanche release more than $1 billion of previously locked PYTH and AVAX into the open market, according to data from research firm Messari.
Pyth Monday unlocked 1.58 billion native PYTH tokens, valued at approximately $736 million. Of the newly unlocked tokens, 75% have been allocated to ecosystem growth, 16.67% have been allocated to private sales, and the remainder will be dedicated to protocol development.
Pyth’s May unlock, which increased the token’s circulating supply by a staggering 105%, comes several months after the token’s November 2023 genesis event, when developers opened airdrop requests for early adopters .
To know more: Pyth Network Launches 100 Million Tokens to Dapps
Also Messari’s data highlights as layer 1 blockchain network Avalanche will unlock 9.54 million AVAX tokens, worth approximately $369 million, on Wednesday, May 22. Protocol team members will receive just under half of the tokens, worth approximately $174 million, while strategic partners will see approximately $86.92 million in AVAX Tokens issued to them. $64.39 million has been reserved for the Avalanche Foundation, while the final tranche of $43.46 million is earmarked for potential airdrops.
Unlike Pyth’s massive increase, Avalanche’s circulating supply increased by less than 3%. The unlock of Avalanche tokens this week is the second unlock in 2024. In February, the blockchain network released a similar amount of tokens, with another unlock expected in August.
To know more: Avalanche Foundation launches itself on the Meme-Coin wave
Token unlocks refer to the gradual process of releasing previously limited tokens into circulating supply, allowing token holders of these once-frozen tokens to use them as they see fit, which could include selling their tokens on a decentralized exchange or use as collateral in a lending protocol.
While the price of PYTH has declined by more than 30% over the past 30 days, from $0.67 to $0.46, AVAX has remained unchanged, rising 0.94% over the same period to $38.66, per CoinGecko .
Representatives for Pyth and Avalanche did not immediately respond to Unchained’s request for comment.