Optimism, the Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, is about to unlock around $81 million in OP tokens on January 29, 2024, according to Token Unlocks data.
Token lock-ups are common in the crypto space, where a portion of the token supply is held back and gradually released over time.
This strategy aims to keep early investors and insiders from flooding the market with a large number of tokens right after distribution, which could disrupt the market’s stability.
However, such unlocking events are frequently viewed with caution, as they can result in price drops due to the sudden influx of available supply.
Optimism‘s upcoming unlock is expected to distribute over 24 million OP tokens, or around 2.5% of the circulating supply, to the project’s investors and core contributors.
Notably, this event comes after the unlocking of approximately 885 million tokens, accounting for 20.6% of the project’s total supply.
Optimism released its Canyon upgrade earlier this month, the most recent major enhancement since the Bedrock upgrade.
Canyon, developed in collaboration with Base, is focused on supporting the Shanghai and Capella hardforks while also implementing minor bug fixes.
In addition to these developments, the project has announced a $30 million token distribution to reward contributors who are actively involved in creating the public goods that power the Optimism Collective.
