Solana (SOL)
Unlock Schedule
Solana (SOL) Token Unlock & Vesting Schedule
The unlock chart above provides a clear visual overview of the Solana (SOL) 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 SOL 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 inflation
Solana tokenomics were designed with a disinflationary schedule: inflation started higher and decreases by 15% per year until it reaches a long‑term rate of around 1.5%. Newly issued SOL primarily rewards validators and stakers for securing the network. While exact rates vary with epochs and network conditions, the long‑term design aims to balance security with predictable dilution. (solana.com)
Fees and burn mechanics
Transaction fees have two main parts: a base fee (per signature) and optional priority fees (denominated per compute unit). Historically, 50% of all transaction fees were burned and 50% went to the block producer. In February 2025, a change known as SIMD‑0096 updated this so that only 50% of base fees are burned, while priority fees are no longer burned—improving incentives for block producers during spikes. (github.com)
Staking and governance
SOL holders can delegate their SOL to validators and earn staking rewards. Staking helps secure consensus, and delegators can switch validators at any time. While Solana does not use on‑chain token voting for base protocol changes, SOL remains the utility token across programs, fees, and many app‑level governance systems.
What SOL is used for
- Pay transaction and storage fees on the Solana blockchain.
- Stake to secure the network and earn rewards.
- Provide liquidity, collateral, and incentives across Solana DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and payments.
Assumptions
- Supply is uncapped; we model PoS inflation issuance for 11 annual periods (2021-02-01 through 2032-02-01).
Solana’s inflation schedule is ongoing with a 1.5% long-term rate; precise infinite modeling is impractical.
- Inflation enablement modeled to start 2021-02-01.
Foundation materials state inflation was enabled by validator vote in early 2021; reputable validator research notes activation in February 2021. Exact activation day not specified in primary docs; month-level modeling used.
- PoS issuance amounts are computed using annual rates applied sequentially to an estimated base supply at inflation start and compounding; burns, slashing, and fee-related offsets are ignored for issuance modeling.
The schedule requires tokens released, not net-of-burn; Solana burns 50% of base transaction fees (priority fee burn changed in 2025), which affects net supply but not gross issuance.
- Community Reserve and Foundation Treasury are modeled as unlocked at genesis.
Per Foundation transparency, these tokens were not locked by smart contract; they are under Foundation control and enter circulation over time via grants/sales/delegations not governed by a fixed vesting contract.
- CoinList Auction delivery date set to 2020-04-15 for modeling.
Foundation states tokens were 100% unlocked since delivery in April 2020 but does not give an exact day; mid-month date chosen for monthly granularity.
- Founders/Team allocation taken as 62.5M SOL with 50% unlock on 2021-01-07 and 24-month linear vest for the remainder.
Explicitly stated in Foundation transparency report; other sources list nearby percentages (e.g., 12.8%) which are consistent within rounding; we prefer the Foundation’s stated token counts.
- 1. https://solana.com/news/solana-foundation-transparency-reports
- 2. https://solana.com/staking
- 3. https://solana.com/docs/core/fees
- 4. https://www.binance.com/en/research/projects/solana/
- 5. https://solana.com/en/news/solana-raises-1-76-million-in-sold-out-coinlist-auction
- 6. https://solana.com/en/news/june-newsletter
- 7. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2057388/000206159025000143/s1a.htm
- 8. https://solana.com/news/solana-foundation-permanently-removes--11-365m-from-token-supply
- 9. https://medium.com/chorus-one/exploring-validator-economics-on-solana-cb1498a3aef6
Allocations
Description
#7
Solana is a decentralized computing platform that offers fast and low-cost transactions and smart contract execution. Solana uses a novel consensus mechanism that combines proof of stake and proof of history to achieve high throughput and security.
| Sector: | Layer 1 |
| Blockchain: | Solana |