Axie Infinity, Optimism and Aptos among over $200 million in October token unlocks

Crypto projects Axie Infinity, Optimism and Aptos are set for significant token unlocks in October. 

AXS, the governance token of the blockchain-based NFT game Axie Infinity, will see the largest unlock, according to TokenUnlocks. Axie Infinity will release 15.1 million AXS tokens on Oct. 20 — 11.5% of its circulating supply, worth approximately $71.8 million. 

The majority ($28.9 million) of the unlocks will go to the project's team, with $16.3 million allocated to staking rewards, $16 million to play to earn incentives, $8 million to an ecosystem fund and $2.6 million to advisors, TokenUnlocks data states.

Following the release of 3.4 million AXS tokens ($16.3 million) at its last unlock in July, the price of AXS fell nearly 10% from $6.54 to $5.94 within a few days, according to CoinGecko. The token is currently trading at $4.73, down 22% in 2023 amid a tough year for the NFT and blockchain gaming sectors.

Optimism and Aptos unlock $61 million worth of tokens

In total, nearly $215 million worth of tokens are due for release in October. Besides Axie Infinity, Ethereum Layer 2 Optimism (OP Mainnet) is set to release 24.2 million OP tokens on Oct. 30, per TokenUnlocks.

Representing 3% of circulating supply, the unlock is currently worth $35.3 million. Some $18.6 million will go to core contributors, with $16.7 million set aside for investors.

The OP token is trading up 8% at $1.45 since Optimism's last unlock on Sept. 30 released the same amount of tokens — compared to a fall of 12% following its August unlock. The project sold $162 million worth of OP tokens last month in a private sale for “treasury management purposes.” Optimism also directly distributed the remainder of unclaimed funds from its first airdrop to eligible addresses and announced a new $26 million airdrop in September.

Layer 1 blockchain Aptos, founded by ex-Meta execs, rounds out the top three unlocks in October, releasing 4.5 million APT tokens on Oct. 12 — equivalent to 1.91% of its circulating supply and worth around $26 million. Approximately $18.4 million will go to the community, with $7.6 million allocated to the Aptos Foundation, according to TokenUnlocks data.

Aptos released 4.5 million tokens last month. September’s unlock was followed by the APT token rise over 7% from $5.00 to $5.36 within seven days.

APT is currently trading at $5.72. September saw the decentralized exchange Sushi expand to Aptos, Coinbase Pay added to its crypto wallet Petra and a $1 million fund launched to foster Aptos DeFi protocols. Universal Pictures also teamed up with Aptos developer Aptos Labs to offer a web3 fan experience for its upcoming horror flick “The Exorcist: Believer” last month.

Avalanche set for $93.4 million token unlock in November

Other notable unlocks this month include ApeCoin ($19.7 million), Sui ($17.2 million), ImmutableX ($11 million) and dYdX ($4.5 million).

Looking ahead to November, Avalanche is set for a significant token unlock, with $93.5 million worth of AVAX tokens, some 2.7% of circulating supply estimated to be released on Nov. 24.