Deciphr Academy
Track 3 · Module 13 · Lesson 5 of 7 · 8 min read

What is a token unlock, and how do emissions and burns change a token's supply?

Short answer

An unlock is when locked or vesting tokens become free to move, so circulating supply goes up.1,2 Emissions are new tokens created on a schedule, such as staking rewards, and burns destroy tokens; the balance between the two sets the token's inflation rate.3,4,5

Unlocked BRDL, month by month (made up)01224364860months after launch1,000M500M160M at launchmonth 12: +130M
Fig. 5. Brindlecove's made-up unlock calendar. A slow climb, a jump at month 12 when two cliffs end, then a steady rise to the full 1,000,000,000.

Unlocks

An unlock is the date when tokens that couldn't be moved become free. CoinMarketCap says vesting tokens "exist but cannot be transferred until a set date or milestone".1

Data sites publish unlock calendars. CoinMarketCap lists "token unlocks and vesting details for leading crypto projects".6

Arbitrum's documents give a real example. Team and investor ARB first unlocked one year after the token generation event (16 March 2023), then every month for three more years. The Arbitrum Foundation's own tokens unlock in a straight line over four years, enforced by a vesting smart contract wallet.2 A token generation event, or TGE, is the moment a project first creates and issues its token. That is how Chainlink's guide describes it, and it notes that a token sale can come months earlier.7

The shape matters

CoinMarketCap says two things about a release schedule matter most.1

  • The shape. A cliff releases a large amount on one date. Linear vesting releases a little all the time. The same total can put very different pressure on supply.1
  • Who receives it. CoinMarketCap says tokens vesting to a treasury that spends them on grants behave differently from tokens vesting to early investors who paid very little for them.1

Why unlock dates matter

  • The SEC on shares. The SEC's investor website tells people to check when a company's lock-up ends, because a stock price may drop when investors expect locked-up shares to be sold.8
  • Binance Research on tokens. In May 2024, citing a report by Token Unlocks, it said about US$155 billion of tokens were expected to unlock from 2024 to 2030.9
  • Its view. Without more buying demand to match, it said, that many tokens arriving on the market poses selling pressure. It called tracking unlock schedules essential for investors.9

Emissions: new tokens

Emissions are new tokens created on a schedule. CoinMarketCap puts it this way: "Supply is a snapshot. Emissions are the schedule that moves it."3 Rewards paid to users to grow a project count too; it calls them "issuance like any other".10

Network Its published rule
Ethereum No max supply; new ETH keeps being created.3 ethereum.org's worked example, written when about 14 million ETH was staked: about 1,700 ETH a day to stakers; it says the figure changes with how much ETH is staked.4
Solana Solana's staking page (read 24 October 2026) says inflation started at 8% a year, falls by 15% each year and settles at 1.5%.11 In August 2026 validators voted (SGP-0002) to make it fall by 30% a year instead; the change applies once a software switch is turned on, and its technical proposal was still marked "Review" on 24 October 2026.12,13,14
Arbitrum Inflation of at most 2% a year.2
Uniswap Its 2020 launch post said a perpetual inflation rate of 2% a year would start after four years.15 Uniswap's developer docs, read on 24 October 2026, say there is no active inflation: governance may mint up to 2% a year but has not done so.16

Staking pulls in two directions at once. CoinMarketCap says it takes tokens out of the liquid float while they are locked, but the rewards it pays are new tokens.3

Burns: tokens destroyed

A burn removes tokens for good.3 Ethereum burns part of every transaction fee, the base fee, as Module 5 showed. ethereum.org says fee burning went live in August 2021.5

ethereum.org's worked example, using that 1,700 ETH a day: if the average gas price on a day is at least 16 gwei, the ETH burned that day cancels out that issuance. Net inflation that day is then zero or less.5

CoinMarketCap gives a second kind of example. BNB's published max supply is not a round number, because repeated burns have pulled it down.3 It says you can't tell whether a token is "inflationary" or "deflationary" just from its max supply.3

How we work out inflation and unlock growth

Inflation in a year = (new tokens − burned tokens) ÷ supply at the start of the year × 100. ethereum.org's pre-Merge example: miners received about 4.93 million new ETH a year ÷ 120.5 million ETH ≈ 4.09% (stakers added about 0.52% more).4

Growth from an unlock = tokens unlocked ÷ circulating supply just before × 100. Example: 130,000,000 unlocked when 270,000,000 were circulating ≈ 48%. The quizzes use these methods.

Our viewAn unlock means tokens can move, not that they will be sold. No source here says what any token's price will do. What they agree on is that a date with a lot of supply arriving is worth knowing in advance.
Sources
  1. What Is Tokenomics? (allocation, vesting and treasury funds). CoinMarketCap Academy, updated 7 October 2026.
  2. $ARB airdrop eligibility and distribution specifications. Arbitrum DAO governance docs, Arbitrum Foundation (read 22 October 2026).
  3. What Is Tokenomics? (emissions, burns and staking). CoinMarketCap Academy, figures pulled by CoinMarketCap on 7 October 2026, updated 7 October 2026.
  4. How The Merge impacted ETH supply. ethereum.org (read again 24 October 2026), page last updated 6 June 2026.
  5. How The Merge impacted ETH supply (the burn). ethereum.org (read again 24 October 2026), page last updated 6 June 2026.
  6. Token Unlocks and Vesting Schedules. CoinMarketCap (read 22 October 2026).
  7. What Is a Token Generation Event?. Chainlink Education (chain.link); Chainlink is a company with its own commercial interests (read 24 October 2026), last updated 6 April 2026.
  8. Initial Public Offerings: Lockup Agreements (glossary). Investor.gov, US Securities and Exchange Commission.
  9. Low Float & High FDV: How Did We Get Here? (unlocks). Binance Research, May 2024.
  10. What Is Tokenomics? (community incentives). CoinMarketCap Academy, updated 7 October 2026.
  11. Staking and Inflation FAQ. Solana (solana.com, read 22 October 2026 and again 24 October 2026).
  12. SGP-0002: Double Disinflation Rate. Solana Governance Proposals, Solana Foundation on GitHub (read 24 October 2026; status updated in the repository on 28 August 2026), created 3 July 2026.
  13. Solana vote to double disinflation passes by a hair in dramatic finish. CoinDesk, 28 August 2026.
  14. SIMD-0550: Double Disinflation Rate. Solana Improvement Documents, Solana Foundation on GitHub (read 24 October 2026), created 2 June 2026.
  15. Introducing UNI. Uniswap Labs blog, 16 September 2020.
  16. UNI Token. Uniswap developer documentation (read 24 October 2026).
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General education built from the publicly available sources listed above. Not financial, legal, tax or investment advice. Naming a company, project or regulator is not an endorsement either way. Last checked 2026-10-24. Terms and disclaimer.