Namada (NAM) Tokenomics, Unlock Schedule and Vesting Chart

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Namada (NAM) Token Unlock & Vesting Schedule

The unlock chart above provides a clear visual overview of the Namada (NAM) 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 NAM 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

Supply and genesis

Namada’s proposed genesis described a total supply of 1,000,000,000 NAM (one billion) with no lockups at launch, distributed across categories such as supporters of the Anoma Foundation, early core contributors, public‑goods funding (retroactive and future), and ecosystem development. The allocations were discussed publicly before mainnet as part of an open, community‑driven launch process. (namada.net)

Inflation that funds public goods and privacy

Namada’s economics are designed to pay for public goods. New NAM can be minted algorithmically to reward proof‑of‑stake security, to incentivize use of the shielded pool, and to fund public goods (PGF). These flows are controlled by PD‑controllers that adjust rates toward targets set via governance. At genesis, the protocol parameters allowed up to 10% per year for staking rewards (tuned to hit a target staking ratio) and up to 10% per year for shielded pool incentives (set per asset). PGF is an additional, governance‑set rate used to fund ecosystem work. Governance can update these parameters over time. (specs.namada.net)

Staking, governance, and fees

Staking: NAM holders can delegate to validators and earn protocol rewards. Unbonding periods apply; at mainnet, Namada set a 14‑day unbonding period. Validator commissions and performance affect outcomes. (namada.net)
Governance: NAM confers voting power. Validators vote by default, but delegators can override them and vote directly. Proposal deposits are required to reduce spam, and successful proposals can enact upgrades on‑chain. (namada.net)
Fees: NAM pays transaction fees across transparent and shielded actions. With 4‑second blocks and CometBFT, settlement is quick while preserving privacy. (docs.namada.net)

Shielded set rewards (SSR)

Because bigger anonymity sets help everyone, Namada pays users to keep eligible assets in the MASP. Rewards are dynamic and set per asset, with governance able to add or remove tokens and tune targets. This creates a flywheel: more shielding → bigger shared set → stronger privacy → more reasons to shield. (namada.net)

Assumptions

Supply is inflationary/uncapped.
Protocol mints new NAM via PoS rewards, Shielded Set Rewards (MASP), and PGF; no max cap stated in primary sources.
Genesis balances were non-transferable until Phase 5; modeled as a single cliff on 2025-06-20.
Official rollout shows NAM transfers enabled at the end of the multi-phase launch; blog post marks launch completion with transferability enabled.
PoS issuance modeled at 5% APR on a 1B NAM base from 2024-12-19 to 2025-10-16.
Phase 2 enabled staking inflation with a 5% maximum controlled by a PD controller; exact per-epoch issuance varies with stake ratio. We use a time-weighted approximation for charting.
Shielded Set Rewards start date and rate approximated.
Migration to enable SSR completed around 2025-07-03; community metrics indicated ~4.47% annualized shielded rewards late July. Modeled from 2025-07-05 to 2025-10-16 at that rate.
PGF issuance included only confirmed on-chain disbursements with amounts in primary forum posts.
PGF budget inflates supply only when allocated. Included Coin Center Donor Drop (and fix), Donor Drop app creators, Namada Builder Round 1, and Web3Privacy Now Donor Drop amounts. Continuous/subsidy proposals not yet enacted are excluded.
Genesis allocation percentages and splits are taken from official posts; some subcategory percentages in community summaries differ.
Where an official numeric split was given (e.g., 17% maintenance split; 16.3355% public allocations split), those are used. Investor/backer and early contributor exact percents use best-available figures; residual unenumerated ~5.33% in some community tallies is not included due to lack of primary breakdown.

Sources (21)