Optimism set to unlock $587M worth of OP tokens, will investors unload?
More than 386 million Optimism (OP) tokens — worth $587 million at current prices — are scheduled to be unlocked on May 31 as the initial vesting period for early contributors and investors comes to an end, prompting concerns about downward price pressure.
The May 31 OP unlock is one of the largest scheduled unlocking events of this year. With a current total circulating supply of just 335 million OP tokens, the unlock could potentially see the circulating supply increase by more than 100%.
Optimism will unlock 9% of total $OP supply tomorrowThis is the 1st unlock for core contributors & investorsAt current token price, potential selling pressure ~$600M pic.twitter.com/g7sg1vXMkM
According to analysis from token unlock research firm Unlock Calendar, there’s a reasonable chance that the Optimism unlock could create some significant sell pressure for the native OP token, in large part due to early-stage investors sitting on sizable returns.
The largest seed investors in Optimism include the crypto venture capital firms Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and IDEO CoLab Ventures. According to data from CryptoRank, investment firms that participated in the seed round — Paradigm and IDEO — are currently up more than 10,000% on their initial investment.
However, as a whole, it appears that the average buy-in price for the venture capital firms sits at approximately $0.24, meaning that currently, the firms are sitting on an aggregate 529% gain.
Token unlocks are scheduled events where tokens allocated to early-stage investors and major development contributors are “released” after being frozen for a designated period of time. Crypto projects typically ensure that tokens are “locked up” to avoid large asset sales during periods
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