Gaming Projects Set to Unlock $175 Million in Tokens Within Weeks

Some sizable gaming token unlocks are set to take place between now and the end of February, increasing the circulating supply for tokens tied to games like The Sandbox (SAND) and Parallel (PRIME). These unlocks could impact the market price, so traders keep tabs on such moves.

The Sandbox is up first, according to estimates from crypto dashboard TokenUnlocks, with 205.59 million SAND expected to be unlocked on Wednesday between team, advisor, and company reserve allocations. That tally represents about $99.2 million worth of SAND at the current price, and equals about 9.2% of the current circulating supply.

On February 16, 15.6 million ApeCoin (APE) tokens will unlock based on allocations due to Bored Ape Yacht Club maker Yuga Labs and its founders, launch contributors, the ApeCoin DAO, and charitable efforts. That represents about $23.1 million worth of the Ethereum token, which equals only about 2.6% of the circulating supply at present.

Beginning February 22, Immutable is set to begin a 28-day linear unlock of 1.22 million IMX tokens per day, or $3.66 million worth at the current price. These allocations are due to the ecosystem and project development funds, as well as for private token sale.

At the current price, that represents nearly $29.3 million worth of unlocks before the end of February, for 9.76 million IMX tokens. It’s a relatively tiny amount of the current circulating supply, however, representing less than 1% of what’s out there.

And on February 28, the PRIME token tied to collectible card game Parallel will see 1.66 million tokens unlocked, or about $16.1 million worth at the current price. The unlock is equal to just less than 5% of the current circulating supply.

Web3 gaming guild organization Yield Guild Games also has an unlock for its YGG token slated for February 27, with 16.69 million tokens unlocking at a current value of $7.89 million. That tally represents nearly 5.7% of the circulating supply.

Lastly, move-to-earn game Stepn will begin a 31-day linear unlock of GMT tokens on February 29, with 3.22 million GMT unlocking daily in total. That’s just over $833,000 worth per day at the current price, but for only one day that falls within February. In March, about $25 million worth of the tokens will be unlocked, based on today’s price.

What are token unlocks? When new tokens tied to games, apps, and other crypto projects are minted, they often include a schedule of timed allocations that may go to team members, a community-controlled DAO treasury, ecosystem development efforts, and other funds. These typically take place over a matter of years to gradually grow the circulating supply—ideally without disrupting the market too much.

Crypto traders often pay attention to these unlock dates because a large dump of tokens into the wallets of contributors and investors could signal sell pressure, which could have an adverse impact on the price of the token in question.

Major gaming tokens are broadly up recently, however, and some of the tokens in question have notched sizable gains of late. IMX, for example, is up 33% on the month and set a two-year high price on Monday, per data from CoinGecko. ApeCoin has seen an 11% gain over the past 30 days, meanwhile, and PRIME is up 18% during that span.

Looking broadly across the crypto space, major tokens like Avalanche (AVAX), Aptos (APT), and Optimism (OP) have significant unlocks in February, as Decrypt recently covered.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.