What is a token unlock?

A token unlock is when tokens that were locked up, usually for a project's team, early investors or treasury, are released and can be moved or sold. The timing and size of each release is set ahead of time in a vesting schedule. Unlocks matter because they change how many tokens are actually available to trade.

What is a vesting schedule in crypto?

When a new token launches, only part of the total supply usually circulates at first. The rest is set aside for groups like the founding team, early backers, advisors and a community treasury. A vesting schedule says when each group's tokens become available.

The main purpose is to stop insiders from selling everything on day one, which could flood the market. It also ties the team's rewards to the project's progress over several years. Our guide to tokenomics covers how supply and allocation fit together.

What is a cliff unlock?

A cliff is a starting period where nothing unlocks at all. When it ends, a larger batch is released at once. After the cliff, many schedules switch to linear vesting, where tokens unlock in steady amounts each day, week or month until the allocation is fully released.

A common pattern for team tokens is a one-year cliff followed by monthly unlocks over the next two or three years. Investor terms vary, and some community allocations unlock right away or when certain milestones are met.

Arbitrum's ARB token is a well-documented example. Of its initial 10 billion tokens, about 26.9% went to the team, contributors and advisors and about 17.5% to investors. Both groups had four-year lockups, with the first unlock one year after the token was created in March 2023, followed by monthly unlocks over the remaining three years.

Why do traders watch token unlocks this week?

Every unlock adds tokens to the liquid supply. Whether that affects the market depends on whether the people receiving them actually sell, and on whether traders expect them to. Because unlocks are scheduled, many traders watch calendars of upcoming events, and some position ahead of time, which means price moves can happen before the unlock date.

Analysts often compare the size of an unlock with the token's average daily trading volume. A release worth several days of normal trading is harder for the market to absorb than a small one. Cliff releases tend to concentrate that pressure more than equal linear amounts. Unlock size is also one reason market cap can be misleading, since it may count only the circulating supply.

How can you find a token's unlock schedule?

Projects usually publish allocations and vesting terms in their documentation or token paper, as Arbitrum's foundation does. Data sites also track schedules across many tokens. Checking these terms is part of researching a crypto project. Schedules can be changed by a project or its governance, so these details reflect the market as of October 2026.