The total amount of tokens unlocked in October reached US$1.9 billion: What is worth watching

The total number of tokens unlocked in October exceeded US$1.9 billion: Which releases are worth paying attention to?

According to snapshot data from vesting tracker Tokenomist on October 3, tokens worth more than US$1.913 billion are expected to be unlocked in the next month. A total of 32 assets are listed in this statistics, and the single release value of each asset exceeds US$10 million. Among them, RAIN, HYPE and SOL account for about half of the total dollar value.

It needs to be clear that token unlocking means that tokens become transferable, which does not mean that these tokens will be sold immediately. The share of circulating supply and the type of recipient of different projects often reflect the market impact better than the mere dollar value.

Three giants dominate the market: RAIN, HYPE and SOL account for half of the market.

Among the 32 assets, 13 are one-off "Cliff" releases, led by Hyperliquid's HYPE; the other 19 are linear releases, and tokens will gradually enter the market, represented by RAIN and Solana.

Specifically, the three largest releases totaled approximately US$968.3 million, accounting for 50.6% of the total amount. Although there are 32 assets on the list, the remaining 29 tokens only share the other half, and most individual tokens have released values of less than $50 million.

• RAIN: Approximately US$404.6 million
• HYPE: Approximately US$331.7 million
• SOL: Approximately US$232 million
• CC: Approximately US$101.6 million
• BTC: Approximately US$100.8 million
• ZRO: Approximately US$45 million
• ENA: Approximately US$40 - 50 million
• SUI: Approximately US$25 - 27 million
• ARB: Approximately US$18 - 21 million

Release type determines interpretation: linear release versus cliff release

Release type directly affects the interpretation of the data. For example, Solana's $232 million was not released on a single date: Tokenomist's real-time dashboard shows that SOL releases approximately $7.52 million per day, with a cumulative release of approximately $226 million over a 30-day period. By contrast, HYPE's $331.7 million would become transferable in one event.

Volatility in market performance after HYPE unlocked

Hyperliquid's cliff release was the largest single-day event in this snapshot. Although data from Tokenomics.com shows that approximately 14.18 million HYPE tokens will be unlocked on the 29th of each month (covering June to September, the next time will be October 29th), Tokenomist pointed out that in history, only a very small proportion of planned HYPE unlocks have been received and entered into circulation.

HYPE's maximum supply is 1 billion pieces. According to statistics from Tokenomics.com, approximately 465.8 million pieces are still in lock-up period, approximately 222.4 million pieces are in circulation, and approximately 311.7 million pieces have been unlocked but have not entered circulation.

The same database tracks price movements within 14 days of each previous release. The results showed that prices fell 14.1% in May and 12.6% in March, while rising 1% in June, falling 7% in July, and falling 3% in August. Because broader market fluctuations and news unique to Hyperliquid also occur within the same time window, the data cannot analyze the impact of unlocking itself on the market in isolation.

RAIN will release 37 billion tokens on October 10

Although RAIN has received less attention than HYPE, it exceeds the latter in terms of dollar value. Tokenomics.com listed that 37.23 billion RAINs will be released on October 10, accounting for approximately 3.2% of the total of 1.15 trillion units, and approximately 5.2% of the market value at current prices.

The distribution was as follows: private investors received 34.8%, community members received 34.5%, insiders received 29%, and public investors received 1.7%. The same releases have occurred on the 10th of July, August and September, and as of late September, approximately 62.6% of the lock-in period plans have been completed.

Why is the $20 million APR cliff more important than the Arbitrum 92 million ARBs?

Unlocking simply removes transfer restrictions. The recipient's subsequent behavior depends on its identity, the liquidity of the market, and whether the agreement is simultaneously buying back the tokens. Therefore, the ratio to supply is a more useful measure than the dollar amount.

Unlock scale relative to supply or market value:

• APR: 46.67% of adjusted unlocked supply
• TRUMP: 9.94% of circulating supply
• SN51:8.17% of circulation supply
• RAIN: 5.74% of circulation supply
• ARB: Less than 1% of maximum supply
• SUI: 0.6% of market value

The cliff release value of the APR is only about US$20 million, but in Tokenomist's data, it is equivalent to 46.67% of the token's adjusted unlocked supply. Sui's 23.4 million SUI releases (worth approximately US$27.2 million) account for only 0.6% of the market value. Arbitrum's 92.65 million ARBs (divided into 56.13 million for teams and consultants and 36.52 million for investors) account for less than 1% of the largest supply.

LayerZero investors retain 63.8% of ZRO

LayerZero publishes data on how recipients handle unlocked tokens. Its October 20 cliff release involved approximately 23.6 million ZROs worth approximately US$41.6 million, of which 10.63 million went to core contributors and 13 million went to strategic partners.

The project party reported that as of May 31, investors had received 134.7 million unlocked ZROs, but still held 85.9 million. They estimate monthly sales on the open market at approximately 4.9 million ZROs, accounting for approximately 0.5% of total supply. In addition, the LayerZero entity has spent US$112.7 million to repurchase ZROs starting in September 2025, including 50 million ZROs purchased from strategic partners.

ZRO holdings: As of May 31, 63.8% of unlocked investor tokens are still held.

Pump.fun cancels linear release through repurchase destruction

Pump.fun 展示了来自销毁侧面的抵消效应。PUMP 位于线性释放列表中，但该协议将50%的收入用于公开市场购买并销毁。截至9月25日，其仪表板显示已花费4.635亿美元，销毁了1679.1亿枚 PUMP。

TRUMP 则处于另一端。10月18日释放的2870万枚代币（价值约6070万美元）全部流向内部人士。据 Tokenomics.com 称，尽管技术上约75%的 TRUMP 供应已解锁，但只有28.2%的供应量处于流通状态。

10月5日至10月29日期间的六次主要释放

• 10月5日 (ENA): 最终投资者释放，根据 Tokenomist 研究约为14.1亿枚 ENA
• 10月10日 (RAIN): 372.3亿枚代币，占总供应量的3.2%
• 10月18日 (TRUMP): 2870万枚代币，价值约6070万美元，全部流向内部人士
• 10月20日 (ZRO): 2360万枚代币，价值约4160万美元
• 10月25日 (XPL): 约占市值的3.5%
• 10月29日 (HYPE): 约1418万枚代币，占总供应量的1.4%

DoubleZero 和 Plasma 在快照前已释放最大批次

The $1.913 billion figure looks forward from October 3 and therefore excludes events that occurred in previous days. DoubleZero unlocked approximately 1.66 billion 2Zs on October 2, valued at US$113 - 114 million, equivalent to 47.7% of the circulating supply, and began a weekly release stream of approximately 31 million 2Zs that will last until 2029. Plasma released approximately 1.76 billion XPLs on September 25, accounting for approximately 63.2% of the current supply at the time. Its release on October 25 was much smaller, at about 3.5%.

Future changes: Ethena accelerates release, Story, 0G and Jupiter slows down

Ethena's October 5 release is not scheduled. The Ethena Foundation announced on August 27 that it would advance its remaining investor allocations to a single event, at which time Tokenomist showed that 67.3% of ENA supply had been unlocked. Tokenomist's study put the final release at approximately 1.41 billion ENAs, well above the US$40 - 50 million ENA figure shown in the October 3 snapshot.

Other teams took the opposite approach: Story and 0G extended lock-up periods for insiders, and Jupiter's DAO approved a "net-zero" proposal in February 2026, postponing Jupuary activities and suspending team reserves indefinitely, after burning 3 billion JUP in January 2025 reduced the maximum supply from 10 billion to 7 billion. For investors, it is now necessary to check the lock-in calendar against governance decisions, as plans released may change.

November New List

According to Tokenomics.com, Allora (ALLO) will usher in its largest plan unlock on November 11, equivalent to 9.7% of its market value. Huma Finance (HUMA) will usher in its first team and investor cliff release on November 26 after a six-month extension. DBR continues to be released quarterly and ZRO continues to be released monthly.

In addition, STG holders can also continue to convert to ZRO until December 15, 2026, which adds another source of ZRO supply, in parallel with the lock-in period program.