Crypto markets expect about $7.2 billion in crypto token unlocks in January 2025

The crypto data research and analytics platform CryptoRank revealed that the crypto markets should expect approximately $7.2 billion in crypto token unlocks in January this year. The data analytics platform further revealed the top 10 projects with the most significant token unlock value, including Aptos, Optimism, and Arbitrum.

The platform’s token unlock data highlighted that the tokens released by projects since the beginning of the year have amounted to over $1.3 billion. CryptoRank data also revealed that the largest unlock value recorded was on January 1, valued at $910 million, while the lowest was on January 2, valued at $62 million. The week began with token unlocks worth $63 million, with more expected throughout the week.

The research platform also confirmed that the third week of this month, from January 13 to 19, will record the highest unlock value, worth $4 billion. The January 6-12 week, the 20-26 week, and the January 27- February 2 week are expected to record $986 million, $509 million, and $1 billion in unlocks, respectively.

CryptoRank confirmed that token unlocks involved releasing tokens locked up by different projects over a certain period, referred to as the vesting period. Token unlocks release the tokens to different project areas, including investors, the project’s team, governance nodes, development funding, marketing, and rewards.

Aptos tops the list of token unlocks in January

$7.2 Billion Worth of Tokens To Be Unlocked in January 🔓

The following notable token unlocks will happen in January:$APT $111.41M$CIRX $108.35M$ARB $86.42M$OP $67.29M$RON $66.89M$MOVE $53.35M$UXLINK $36.73M$IMX $35.59M$JTO $35.04M$STRK $32.66M pic.twitter.com/POLP3wI3bq

— CryptoRank.io (@CryptoRank_io) January 6, 2025

CryptoRank revealed that Aptos would be the greatest contributor to the January token unlocks. The project plans to release about 11.11 million APT tokens worth a little over $111 million on January 12. The unlock will account for about 2% of Aptos’ market capitalization, which currently stands at about $5.67 billion at the time of publication. 

The Circular Protocol will conduct the second-largest token unlock this January, accounting for about 63% of its market cap. On January 12, the project will release 28 billion CIRX tokens worth $108.35 million. 

Arbitrum, Optimism, Ronin, Movement, UXLINK, Immutable, Jito Labs, and StarkNET are the remaining top 8 projects, meant to release $86,24 million, $67.29 million, $66.89 million, $53.35 million, $36,73 million, $35.59 million, $35.04 million, and $32.66 million in token unlock value, respectively. 

Keyrock speculates that token unlocks might negatively impact markets

According to digital asset liquidity solutions service provider Keyrock, the January token unlocks might trigger negative market responses. After monitoring over 16,000 unlocks, the company researched token unlocks and their effects on crypto markets. The platform published its research findings in December 2024 as investors anticipated the possible effects of this year’s unlocks. 

The Keyrock research report highlighted that crypto projects unlock over $600 million in weekly tokens. The firm explained in its research that despite the predetermined actions taken before the token unlocks, the recipients, scale, anticipation, timing, and other factors dictate the negative outcomes experienced after. 

The research ascertained that the larger the token unlocks, the higher the chances for negative feedback in the market. The report further highlighted that large unlocks could lead to approximately 2.4x price declines and significantly increased volatility depending on all factors before and during a token unlock.

Keyrock still explained that 90% of the token uncocks had higher chances of triggering negative price action despite the type and size of the release. However, the research also highlighted that token release to teams causes the most notable crashes that lead to panic sell-offs. Keyrock further shared that investor unlocks triggered more stable price action, while project development unlocks yielded the most positive results. 

The research identified different trends investors could expect from its study, explaining that linear unlocks positively impacted the markets more than cliff unlocks. The January unlocks are, however, mostly cliff unlocks, leading to the firm’s speculation of negative price action. Keyrock shared that retail investors would be more prone to reacting to negative market dynamics than institutional investors.

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