The upcoming week in the crypto market promises to be a momentous one, with over $1 billion in token unlocks set to take place—this underscores the increasing complication and sophistication of the token economy.
By using Tokenomist’s classification framework to aggregate data, this was revealed. Incsider tokens make up about 8% of this category—these are the tokens that are unlocked for founders, early investors, or core contributors. Tokenomics, anyone?
Of the many projects due for an unlock, a number of well-known entities are set to come out from behind the curtain. The lineup includes $PYTH, $MRS, $SOL, $PIXEL, and $EIGEN. Of these, $PYTH ranks at the head of the value pack and also stands as the project whose unlock is least likely to bring with it negative vibes.
Stepping into the spotlight, $PYTH, with its release value of $251 million, is danging like the low-hanging fruit investors should take heed of.
$PYTH Heads the Unlocks with a Major Supply Release
The focus this week is on $PYTH, the native token of the Pyth Network, a leading decentralized oracle protocol. The next unlock, set for May 19, 2025, will push a whopping 58.62% of $PYTH’s circulating supply into the open market. In terms of both absolute numbers and percentage, this unlock is by far the most substantial of any that we see on the calendar going forward.
After a strong month of gains driven by macro relief, the crypto market traded mostly sideways this past week.
Weekly Unlock Digest – Week 3, May 2025 👇
Investors appear to have already priced in the impact of the U.S. and China tariff delay. Despite this, Ethereum showed… pic.twitter.com/2ECrD8kjFH— Tokenomist (prev. TokenUnlocks) (@Tokenomist_ai) May 19, 2025
As per the most recent progress report, just 36% of the $PYTH total token supply has been unlocked. The next token distribution will change the circulating dynamic significantly, pushing the percentage of the total supply that has been unlocked a lot higher. While how tokens are distributed and how many are in circulation can dictate a token’s price, Pyth’s team seems to have planned its token unlock with a price-stable, long-term vision in mind.
Significantly, a large part of these vested tokens has been designated for initiatives that are focused on the community. These initiatives include the following:
– Ecosystem development
– Publisher rewards
– Private sales
– Protocol expansion
This is directly in line with the Pyth Network’s overall mission. The Network aims to construct a decentralized, community-driven oracle infrastructure capable of serving DeFi, traditional finance, and nascent blockchain ecosystems.
Insider Allocations Remain Limited but Noteworthy
Of the $1 billion in unlocks projected for the week, an estimated 8% is classified as “insider” unlocks. These are not your typical unlocks, which are ostensibly all about maintaining network security, preventing scammy behavior, and enforcing tokenomics. In our last episode, we talked about the 23% of the week that was just normal, everyday unlocks.
Although it may appear that a low percentage of insider unlocks occurs, consider the amount of capital coming into the market from these allocations. When dissected and analyzed, as they often are, these allocations are revealed to be triggering mechanisms for just the kind of sell-off one doesn’t want to see in the project one has invested in. And if it’s not bad enough that these sell-offs are happening, consider that the apparent transparency of the long-term token distribution strategy may be a big reason for the lack of price liquidity in the first place.
In the present market conditions—characterized by macroeconomic stabilization and an investor-friendly climate—token unlocks are being digested far more efficiently than in earlier bearish episodes. Recent episodes, like the near-seamless supply release from tokens like $ETHFI, illustrate this new narrative. They show that when the fundamentals are good and the story is right, investors clearly have the appetite to buy into supply increases from smart-contract-based tokens.
Key Tokens to Watch: $MRS, $SOL, $PIXEL, and $EIGEN
Even though $PYTH is notable for its size, various other substantial tokens are on the verge of significant unlocks. $MRS, a governance token, and $PIXEL, linked to a GameFi platform that is gaining traction, are both seeing drastic increases in supply. Additionally, $EIGEN, a token that backs staking infrastructure, and $SOL, an unlock tied to Solana, are also considerable events in the week’s unlocking schedule.
These tokens will be observed very closely not just for their price movements but for how their communities and teams handle the liquidity that’s flooding in. Projects that have laid out clear, coherent plans for ecosystem growth, treasury use, and rewarding mechanisms are the ones that stand to do better during big unlock events. This is because such plans cause market participants to see these events as much more benign in terms of strategic ecosystem growth and far less likely to trigger dilution concerns.
As May 19 nears, the industry will be watching intently to see how these unlocks play out—especially for $PYTH. The market’s ability to digest an inflow of supply this large without major disruption will be a test of how crypto investors really feel right now and how well crypto as an asset class is being managed.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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Source: https://nulltx.com/over-1b-in-token-unlocks-set-for-next-week-pyth-tops-the-chart-with-58-supply-release/