Avalanche (AVAX)
Unlock Schedule
Avalanche (AVAX) Token Unlock & Vesting Schedule
The unlock chart above provides a clear visual overview of the Avalanche (AVAX) token release schedule, showing when and how tokens enter circulation across investor, team, treasury, and community allocations. Understanding these tokenomics dynamics is critical for evaluating potential supply pressure, inflation impact, and market liquidity over time — key factors that can influence AVAX price performance.
Each color segment in the chart corresponds to a specific allocation group described in the Allocations section below. Underlying assumptions and data models used to reconstruct this schedule are explained in detail under Assumptions, while broader utility insights and token use cases are covered in Tokenomics & Utility.
Tokenomics & Utility
The AVAX token is the unit of account for fees on the Primary Network, the staking asset for validators, and a common settlement asset across many Avalanche L1s.
- Hard cap: Avalanche tokenomics set a maximum of 720,000,000 AVAX. Half was minted at genesis; the remainder issues over decades via staking rewards governed by adjustable parameters. (support.avax.network)
- Fee burning: All base transaction fees on networks that use AVAX as gas are burned (permanently destroyed), reducing liquid supply as usage grows. This applies to transactions on the X, C, and P‑Chains and on L1s that adopt AVAX for gas. (build.avax.network)
- Staking: To validate the Primary Network, nodes stake at least 2,000 AVAX; delegators can stake from 25 AVAX. Staking periods range from two weeks to one year, and rewards depend on uptime and correct behavior (there is no slashing in base protocol, but offline performance can forfeit rewards). (build.avax.network)
Because fees are burned and staking locks tokens, network activity and validator participation can influence the AVAX supply‑and‑demand balance over time. These fundamentals are among factors often discussed when analyzing AVAX price drivers, alongside adoption by Avalanche DeFi, NFTs, and gaming projects; throughput and finality improvements; and growth in Avalanche L1 deployments. (build.avax.network)
Assumptions
- PoS rewards modeled as linear through 2100 for visualization.
Actual staking issuance follows a variable, governance-bounded Rewards Formula (10–12% of remaining un-minted supply scaled by stake/time) and depends on network participation; linear proxy provides monthly granularity for a long-horizon chart.
- Foundation allocation tokens set to 66,456,000 to make all genesis allocations sum exactly to 360,000,000.
Public materials cite percentages that round; using exact token pools (e.g., A1+B=12M; A2=60M) and ensuring the genesis-minted total equals 360M implies a slightly lower Foundation total than the rounded 9.26% figure.
- Team, Strategic Partners, and Airdrop vesting modeled as 3-month cliff then ~45 months linear.
Multiple official and audit writeups describe 4-year vesting with 3-month cliff and quarterly unlocks; we approximate with linear post-cliff for monthly charting.
- Community & Development Endowment modeled as a 10-year linear disbursement from mainnet.
Actual unlock is 1-year vesting from each grant date; grant timing is discretionary. Linear proxy preserves total tokens and monthly granularity.
- Public sale vesting schedules (A1/A2) use TGE at mainnet 2020-09-21 with the quarterly cliff pattern.
Official sale posts define vesting horizons and that locked tokens are stakeable with reward unlocks having no vesting; we convert to specific cliff dates for monthly modeling.
- Genesis date taken as 2020-09-21 mainnet launch.
Official Avalanche announcement and independent coverage confirm launch date; unlock schedules anchored to this date.
- P-Chain docs list InitialSupply=240M (parameter reference) while support site states 360M minted at genesis overall.
InitialSupply in docs refers to a chain-specific parameter; tokenomics FAQ clarifies total genesis minted across the network was 360M. We model supply using the tokenomics FAQ.
- 1. https://support.avax.network/en/articles/6912428-tokenomics-faq
- 2. https://docs.avax.network/learn/rewards-formula
- 3. https://www.avax.network/about/tokens/
- 4. https://medium.com/avalancheavax/ready-for-liftoff-avalanche-mainnet-set-to-launch-on-september-21-66a1def8d3b3
- 5. https://medium.com/avalancheavax/avalanche-avax-token-sale-july-15th-10am-et-update-1c8ff4728f31
- 6. https://medium.com/avalancheavax/updates-to-avalanche-avax-public-sale-122da45bba5b
- 7. https://www.avax.network/blog/avalanche-foundation-mission-statement-and-reminder-about-system-unlocks
- 8. https://medium.com/avalancheavax/avalanche-raises-42m-in-4-5-hours-for-its-first-public-sale-d09362bf3efc
- 9. https://build.avax.network/docs/quick-start/rewards-formula
Allocations
Description
#23
Avalanche blockchain is an open-source platform that supports decentralized applications and smart contracts in a scalable and interoperable ecosystem. It uses a novel consensus engine called Avalanche that can achieve near-instant transaction finality.
Sector: | Layer 1 |
Blockchain: | Avalanche |