Aptos Falls 16% Over Past Week, Lagging Ahead of $300M Token Unlocking Event

The native cryptocurrency of layer-1 blockchain Aptos (APT) underperformed the crypto market ahead of an almost $300 million supply event due this week that will increase the number of circulating tokens.

APT declined more than 16% over the past week while major crypto assets bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) gained 3% and 5%, respectively. It was the second-worst performing constituent of the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index, beating only the token of decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI) which tumbled on regulatory actions in the U.S.

The difficult week occurred ahead of 24.84 million of previously locked-up APT tokens that are scheduled to be released on April 12, TokenUnlocks data shows. The actual time when assets can be moved after the release could be around 1-2 days after the event, the website adds.

Some $141 million worth of tokens will be distributed to core contributors, $100 million to investors, $38 million among community members. $16 million in tokens are earmarked for the ecosystem development foundation.

Token unlocks happen because the supply of many cryptocurrencies are locked up in vesting to prevent insiders – early investors, team members – from dumping tokens en masse. Prices historically decline around such events, as the supply increase outpaces investor demand for the asset, according to research by crypto analytics firm The Tie.

The APT tokens to be released represent just 6% of the current circulating supply, but is nearly double the daily trading volume on exchanges, per CoinGecko data.