Crypto markets are heading into a heavy supply week that will see seven projects release nearly $200 million worth of tokens into circulation, just over a week before traders find out if the “Christmas rally” will take effect or hide in the ongoing crypto winter.
The top seven token unlocks scheduled between December 15 and 21 welcomes a whopping $199.42 million to the market, with Aster accounting for the largest single release at over $75 million. More than 568 million previously locked tokens are slated to enter crypto trading platforms during the week in total.
The unlock schedule comes against the backdrop of a mild impact from Fed interest rate cuts on the broader digital currency market. Bitcoin and most digital assets are still trading in corrective territory, and the total market cap has dropped by 0.5% in the last 24 hours. A significant token supply addition could cause a deeper downturn if demand does not meet the new numbers in circulation.
Aster leads token unlocks with $75 million
Decentralized spot and perpetual trading exchange Aster will unlock 78.41 million ASTER tokens valued at $75.36 million. According to the data collected by aggregator CryptoRank, the release will take up 3.41% of the DEX token’s market capitalization, the largest unlock both in dollar terms and absolute token count for the week.
The unlock comes on the heels of the start of Aster’s Double Harvest incentive campaign, Phase 5, which also runs this week. According to the DEX’s official X account announcement published on Sunday, users must hold at least 444 ASTER continuously throughout the period to qualify.
Phase 5 rewards eligibility would require them to meet daily perpetual trading volume requirements in markets excluding Bitcoin and Ether. Aster also revealed that Phase 4’s qualified participants reached 6,895 and unlocked a $1 million reward pool.
The rewards from the recently concluded program will reportedly be distributed to Aster Perpetual accounts within seven business days.
LayerZero and Arbitrum to add $57 million in upcoming release
LayerZero’s ZRO token ranks second among the week’s largest unlocks, with the cross-chain interoperability project scheduled to release 24.68 million ZRO tokens next Saturday. The unlocked amount is worth $37.42 million, which is 2.47% of the total token supply and almost 10.3% of its market valuation.
Arbitrum follows closely behind, with its ARB token scheduled for an unlock on Tuesday. The Ethereum layer-2 network will release 92.63 million ARB tokens valued at $19.78 million, which is 0.93% of total supply and 1.65% of Arbitrum’s market capitalization.
Vana’s VANA token comes fourth with its December 16 release of 6.12 million tokens worth $17.41 million. Yooldo Esports will follow on the 19th with an unlock of 41.91 million ESPORTS tokens valued at $17.22 million.
The final two unlocks belong to stablecoin protocol STBL and Merlin Chain’s MERL token. STBL will unlock 288.39 million tokens, valued at $16.12 million. Although the dollar value is lower than several peers, the unlock is 57.7% of STBL’s market capitalization, the highest proportional release among the seven projects.
Merlin Chain is scheduled to unlock 36.14 million MERL tokens on the same day as Yooldo Esports. The release is valued at $16.11 million and will take the circulating supply to 1.72% of its total and about 3.32% of market capitalization.
Aster price seeks rebound after 3% weekly drop
ASTER’s price action has been on the red lane in the week leading to its much awaited unlock, shedding 3% of its values and trading at $0.93 at the time of this reporting. The token had surged to about $1.41 on November 19, then it entered a correctional phase that dragged it back to $0.88 by the start of December.
On December 3, the DEX token bounced back toward the $0.94–$1.12 area, and traders have regularly defended the $0.92 region to keep the price from falling further toward the $0.85–$0.88 zone. At the same time, prices have stayed below $1.00 since they keep sliding down near $0.97.
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