The Valentine’s Day spirit appears to have spilled over into the crypto industry. Bitcoin price climbed following the romantic holiday, and now the market braces for a wave of token unlocks scheduled for this week.
LayerZero (ZRO) will be critical on February 20, with the week’s crucial unlock. The project will release 24.68 million tokens, valued at roughly $46.79 million. Sure, that’s not the largest number of tokens, but it packs the heaviest punch—representing 12.18% of LayerZero’s entire market cap.
LayerZero operates as a messaging protocol connecting different blockchains. It helps move assets from one blockchain to another without risky bridge services that everyone worries about.
ASTER Releases Another Important One
ASTER unlocks 78.48 million tokens on February 17, worth approximately $57.68 million. This release accounts for just under 1% of the total supply and 3.17% of the market cap. It is a moderate unlock that should not rattle the market too badly.
Your completely free resource hub designed to boost your knowledge of cryptocurrencies
ASTER builds infrastructure for next-generation blockchain applications. Developers get tools to create decentralized apps without going through many steps, and the whole focus is on making blockchain technology less complicated for builders working on Web3 products.
Arbitrum Opens the Week with Monday Unlock
Arbitrum (ARB) kicks things off on February 16, releasing 93.65 million tokens worth about $11.27 million. This is the largest number of tokens unlocking from any single project this week, but it only amounts to 0.94% of Arbitrum’s total supply and 1.61% of market cap.
Arbitrum serves as an express lane for Ethereum transactions. The network processes transactions off the main Ethereum blockchain, bundles them up, and then records them. This cuts transaction fees dramatically and speeds things up, making it way cheaper and faster to work around with Ethereum-based apps.
AITECH Drips Tokens Throughout the Week
AITECH takes a completely different route with daily mini-unlocks from February 16 through February 20. Each day sees exactly 453,536 tokens hit the market, worth roughly $2,717 per release. These daily drops will barely have any impact, with only 0.02% of the total supply and 0.03% of the market cap, but they keep steady pressure going all week long.
AITECH merges artificial intelligence with blockchain technology, building infrastructure for developers who want AI-powered applications on decentralized networks. The platform’s trying to democratize access to AI tools by putting them on blockchain systems where more people can actually use them.
What These Unlocks Mean
Anyone holding these tokens may need to watch closely. The LayerZero unlock stands out, as with 12% of a project’s market cap suddenly available to sell, prices may react.
But here’s the thing: unlocks don’t guarantee crashes. Sometimes, holders actually believe in their project and just sit on their tokens. Other times, everyone sees the unlock coming, and prices adjust well before it happens. Current sentiment, whatever has been happening with the project lately, and how the overall crypto market is doing are factors that play into how these unlocks impact.
