The unlock of 1.9 billion previously restricted ONDO tokens is split between three allocations: ecosystem growth, protocol development, and private sales, according to Tokenomist.
ONDO, the native governance token for Ondo Finance, enables token holders to vote on various proposals such as upgrading the protocol’s smart contracts.
(Shutterstock)
Posted January 17, 2025 at 1:31 pm EST.
Ondo Finance, known for tokenizing real-world assets, will see a substantial influx of its governance token into the market.
Over 1.9 billion previously restricted ONDO tokens worth about $2.4 billion are scheduled to be released at 7:00 p.m. EST on Friday, according to the vesting analytics platform Tokenomist.
Ondo’s current circulating supply is less than that – 1.4 billion, by comparison.
The upcoming release of $2.4 billion worth of tokens not only exceeds ONDO’s current market capitalization of $1.8 billion but is also multitudes higher than the token’s 24-hour trading volume of $222.6 million, market data from CoinGecko.
How the Unlock Will Be Allocated
792 million ONDO, about 40% of the total unlock, is dedicated to ecosystem growth, while 825 million tokens, roughly 42%, are earmarked for protocol development.
The remaining tokens are for private sales, per Tokenomist.
In 2022, Ondo announced that it had raised $20 million in a Series A investment round led by Founders Fund and Pantera Capital, with Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, and GoldenTree joining as strategic investors in the round.
Read More: Jupiter Announces Details of Its Upcoming Airdrop of $575 Million Worth of JUP Tokens
Purpose of Token Unlocks
Similar to vesting schedules for stocks in traditional finance, token unlocks are a popular mechanism that aims to restrict founding team members or investors from selling tokens en masse during the early stages of the protocol.
The last time ONDO conducted its previous token unlock was in January 2024 when 1.4 billion ONDO was allocated to ecosystem growth and a community access sale.
Token unlocks are typically a bearish signal because they increase the supply of the given cryptocurrency. However, since ONDO’s unlock last year, the price of ONDO has increased more than 475% to trade at $1.25.
ONDO’s price increase coincides with the growth of the protocol’s total value locked (TVL), which grew by almost 184% from $192 million to $545.7 million, per DefiLlama.
ONDO is the platform’s governance token that began trading one year ago when the DAO approved the removal of restrictions on transferring ONDO. Holders of ONDO can vote on various proposals to change the protocol’s smart contracts and economic parameters, according to Ondo DAO’s documentation.
Representatives of Ondo Finance did not immediately respond to Unchained’s request for comments.
