Markets
Crypto Prices Under Pressure as Altcoin Unlocks $2 Billion and $11 Billion Bitcoin (BTC) Distribution
Cryptocurrencies are still stuck in a corrective phase, but a wave of supply events worth billions of dollars could further delay any significant recovery.
“A rapid succession of nearly $2 billion in token unlocks over the next ten weeks could depress the altcoin market,” noted crypto analytics firm 10x Research in a Wednesday report.
Large token unlocks in cryptocurrencies are generally bearish events, increasing supply by distributing assets that were previously locked in vesting agreements to team members, organizations and early investors, including venture capital firms.
In the next two months, around US$97 million in apartments (APTO)$79 million worth of starkware (STRK)$94 million in arbitration (ARB)$53 million in immutable X (IMX)$330 million from Avalanche (AVAX)$64 million in optimism (OP)US$ 28 million from PRIME, almost US$ 1 billion from sui (SUI)US$48 million ethena (ENA), $171 million worth of Altlayer ALT and $135 million worth of XAI tokens will be added to circulation, according to data compiled in the report.
“Venture investors may be pressured to take recent gains, which could limit any positive performance of tokens with positive momentum, especially those where unlocks become available,” the report said.
More than $11 billion in bitcoin (BTC) will be distributed to lenders of the Gemini’s Earn crypto exchange program and the long-defunct Mt. Gox crypto marketplace, K33 Research analyst Velte Lunde warned in a Tuesday Report.
“The next few months are set to see waves of good old crypto FUD,” said Lunde, referring to the popular cryptographic acronym out of fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Amid upcoming offering events, one market observer suggested that FTX refunds could offer some relief.
Pending bankruptcy court approval, around $14 to $16 billion in US dollar funds could be paid out to creditors, and a good portion of that could flow back into the crypto market, said Arthur Cheong, founder and chief investment officer of DeFiance Capital.
“Expect at least $3 to $5 billion of crypto-native liquidity to be injected back into the market,” Cheong said in a statement. X post Wednesday.
Later in the day in the US, the broad CoinDesk 20 index fell 3.4% over the past 24 hours, with bitcoin falling 2.5% to $61,500 and ether (ETH) lower by 3.6%. Bitcoin Money (BCH) and Solana (SUN) were the worst performers in the index, each dropping more than 7%.