PancakeSwap (CAKE)
Unlock Schedule
PancakeSwap (CAKE) Token Unlock & Vesting Schedule
The unlock chart above provides a clear visual overview of the PancakeSwap (CAKE) 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 CAKE 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
CAKE is a utility and governance token with deflationary targets under “PancakeSwap tokenomics” updates. After several iterations, PancakeSwap set a hard cap on total supply at 450 million CAKE, down from a previous cap of 750 million. The team’s current plan aims for an annual deflation rate around 4% and a total supply reduction of roughly 20% by 2030. These targets rely on lower emissions and steady burns funded by protocol fees across products (spot swaps, Perpetuals, IFOs, Lottery, and more). (docs.pancakeswap.finance)
In April–May 2025, “Tokenomics 3.0” simplified CAKE’s design by retiring veCAKE, gauge voting, and the old staking model. Governance moved to 1 CAKE = 1 vote snapshots, and fees previously shared to stakers are redirected to CAKE burns. Daily emissions were cut in phases (e.g., farms reduced toward ~14.5k CAKE/day), with the stated goal of sustained net negative issuance month over month. PancakeSwap reports over 20 consecutive months of net CAKE supply reduction heading into mid‑2025. While CAKE price is outside the scope here, this structure attempts to align incentives for liquidity, trading, and longer‑term supply discipline. (forum.pancakeswap.finance)
Today, CAKE’s core utilities include:
- Governance: Voting on core and community proposals via Snapshot. (docs.pancakeswap.finance)
- Protocol Incentives: Emissions to targeted farms and ecosystem growth, managed directly rather than via veCAKE. (forum.pancakeswap.finance)
- Product Hooks and Fees: Portions of fees from swaps, Perpetuals, IFOs, Prediction, and Lottery convert to CAKE and are burned, contributing to the deflation target. (docs.pancakeswap.finance)
CAKE exists natively on BNB Chain (BEP‑20) and has an ERC‑20 deployment on Ethereum, supporting the multichain rollout. Always match network and token addresses correctly when using wallets. (bscscan.com)
Assumptions
- No pre-mine, no team or investor allocations; all CAKE enters circulation via protocol emissions.
Official launch communications state “No pre-mine” and emphasize community ownership; docs list emissions destinations (farms, Syrup Pool, Lottery/Ecosystem Growth).
- Block-based periods use an average 28,800 BSC blocks/day.
BNB Smart Chain targets ~3s blocks; used to convert per-block rates to daily/monthly totals for 2020–2022 and transitional 2022–2023 periods.
- 2022-08-11 to 2023-09-30 modeled at ~2.0 CAKE per block entering circulation.
Bridged between earlier higher rates and Oct 2023 effective ~1.45 CAKE/block; aligns with the protocol’s shift to deflation and gauges. Exact monthly mints not fully published; hence conservative interpolation.
- Daily emissions for 2024–Apr 24, 2025 approximated at ~29,000 CAKE/day; Apr 25–May 23, 2025 at ~20,000 CAKE/day; from May 24, 2025 onward at ~14,500 CAKE/day.
Tokenomics 3.0 announcements specified Phase 1 and Phase 2 daily emission targets; used to build monthly unlocks.
- Monthly minted figures used where published by PancakeSwap.
Official burn reports provide exact ‘Total Mint’ by month and were used verbatim for Oct–Dec 2023, Jan 2024, Jan 2025, and Jun 2025.
- 1. https://medium.com/pancakeswap/pancakeswap-the-flippening-13bea39921b7
- 2. https://docs.pancakeswap.finance/archive/old-tokenomics/cake-tokenomics-v1
- 3. https://medium.com/pancakeswap/cake-emissions-vote-87449f14c9e4
- 4. https://medium.com/pancakeswap/monthly-cake-emissions-vote-98e0caec5854
- 5. https://medium.com/pancakeswap/pancakeswap-august-recap-478d351e0e2
- 6. https://medium.com/pancakeswap/pancakeswap-recap-di-dicembre-pronti-per-il-2022-5f60a992b0
- 7. https://medium.com/pancakeswap/pancakeswap-march-recap-53b9a394c4cc
- 8. https://medium.com/pancakeswap/pancakeswap-august-recap-1bac0160ccdb
- 9. https://docs.pancakeswap.finance/protocol/cake-tokenomics
- 10. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/pancake-swap-reduces-cake-maximum-supply-to-450-million-charting-a-course-for-deflationary-success
- 11. https://forum.pancakeswap.finance/t/proposal-to-redirect-emissions-for-ecosystem-growth/796
- 12. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/cake-pad
- 13. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/october-2023-pancake-swap-s-cake-burn-JP1
- 14. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/pancake-swap-s-de-fi-galaxy-tour-planet-6-saturn-syndicate-perpetual-trading-galore
- 15. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/dicembre-2023-cake-burn-di-pancake-swap
- 16. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/pancake-swap-2023-8
- 17. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/pancake-swap-resumen-abril
- 18. https://blog.pancakeswap.finance/articles/april-2025-pancake-swap-s-cake-burn
Allocations
Description
#102
PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that runs on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). PancakeSwap allows users to swap tokens, provide liquidity, earn fees, and win prizes. PancakeSwap uses an automated market maker (AMM) model and has its own governance token called CAKE.
| Sector: | DEX |
| Blockchain: | BNB |