Ethereum (ETH)
Unlock Schedule
Ethereum (ETH) Token Unlock & Vesting Schedule
The unlock chart above provides a clear visual overview of the Ethereum (ETH) 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 ETH 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
ETH is the network’s utility asset. You spend ETH to pay “gas” for transactions and smart‑contract execution, and validators receive ETH as staking rewards. Unlike fixed‑cap coins, Ethereum tokenomics are dynamic: since EIP‑1559, the protocol burns a portion of every transaction fee (the “base fee”), while PoS issues ETH to validators. When network usage is high, burns can offset or exceed issuance, which can reduce net supply. (eips.ethereum.org)
After The Merge, issuance fell sharply because mining rewards ended; the chain now mints a smaller amount to stakers for security. This combination—lower issuance plus fee burns—gives ETH a unique supply profile tied to on‑chain activity. Users care because over time these mechanics, plus demand from apps and institutions, can influence the ETH price. (investopedia.com)
ETH also acts as “economic bandwidth” for the ecosystem. It collateralizes loans and derivatives in DeFi, pays protocol fees on rollups, and serves as a base asset for liquidity pools and market makers. New primitives like restaking (e.g., EigenLayer) allow staked ETH to help secure additional services, although they introduce new design space and trade‑offs that developers are actively exploring. (eips.ethereum.org)
Assumptions
- ETH supply is uncapped.
Ethereum has no fixed maximum supply; issuance/burn policies govern net supply. We set total_supply to null and model realized issuance mechanisms to date.
- Percent_total values are computed against gross issuance to date (sum of all positive allocations), not net of EIP-1559 burns.
Burns destroy ETH and are not a release mechanism; gross issuance basis avoids negative categories in the stacked release view.
- PoW block-reward amounts per period include uncle inclusion (nephew) rewards paid to block miners.
Etherscan’s 'Mining Block Rewards' metric includes both base subsidy and inclusion rewards; we apportion across 5/3/2 ETH eras by base-reward-weighted block counts.
- Uncle/Ommer rewards per period are apportioned by the same weights used for PoW eras.
Exact uncle issuance by era is not provided in a primary aggregate; uncle payouts scale with base reward and uncle frequency varied over time. We use proportional allocation to match the authoritative total.
- PoS rewards are split into three phases (pre‑Merge, post‑Merge pre‑withdrawals, post‑Shanghai) using time‑weighted allocation.
Consensus-layer issuance depends on total staked ETH and validator performance, which varies over time. Without a canonical aggregate by phase from a primary source, time-weighting matches the authoritative total while reflecting the key network milestones.
- Monthly modeling assumes linear accrual within each phase.
Issuance occurs continuously; a linear monthly schedule is an equivalent approximation for charting at monthly granularity.
- 1. https://etherscan.io/stat/supply/
- 2. https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/07/30/ethereum-launches
- 3. https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-649
- 4. https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-1234.md
- 5. https://ethereum.org/roadmap/merge/issuance/
- 6. https://blog.ethereum.org/2023/03/28/shapella-mainnet-announcement
Allocations
Description
#2
Ethereum is a technology that enables digital money, global payments, and decentralized applications. It is powered by a network of computers that run on a blockchain, a distributed ledger that records transactions and ensures security and transparency
| Sector: | Layer 1 |
| Blockchain: | Ethereum |