Zilliqa (ZIL)
Unlock Schedule
Zilliqa (ZIL) Token Unlock & Vesting Schedule
The unlock chart above provides a clear visual overview of the Zilliqa (ZIL) 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 ZIL 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 distribution
ZIL has a fixed maximum supply of 21 billion. At launch, 60% of tokens were created for the token generation event, with the remaining 40% issued over time through network rewards under the original design. That issuance, reward cadence, and related parameters have been revised across upgrades and proposals, but the fixed cap remains central to the asset’s design. (gov.zilliqa.com)
Staking and rewards
Staking on Zilliqa started as a way to incentivize Staked Seed Nodes (SSNs), which serve public APIs and maintain a full ledger archive. Users delegate ZIL to an SSN and share a portion of the rewards. With Zilliqa 2.0, staking shifts to a PoS validator model that directly secures the network. Rewards are paid per block with a split that incentivizes both proposing and voting performance by validators, while delegators can continue to stake through validator pools. An unbonding period applies to withdrawals. (blog.zilliqa.com)
A one‑year governance token, gZIL, was also minted alongside staking rewards when non‑custodial staking launched in October 2020. The maximum possible supply was 722,700 gZIL, and minting ended after the one‑year program. gZIL represents voting power in community governance. (dev.zilliqa.com)
Network fees and on‑chain uses
ZIL is used to pay gas for transfers and smart‑contract calls on both the Scilla and EVM execution layers. The token also underpins many ecosystem functions, such as liquidity provision on ZRC‑2 DEXs, payment inside apps, and staking‑based governance. Real‑world asset and payments projects use ZRC‑2 tokens as well; for example, the Singapore‑dollar stablecoin XSGD and the Indonesian‑rupiah stablecoin XIDR exist as ZRC‑2 tokens on Zilliqa. (dev.zilliqa.com)
Assumptions
- Group 3 (Anquan, Zilliqa Research, Team, Advisors) originally vests quarterly over 3 years; modeled as linear monthly for charting.
Primary source specifies quarterly distribution but schema and visualization require monthly granularity; total tokens and dates preserved.
- Early & Community tokens unlock date set to 2018-01-26 (TGE conclusion).
Official communications place TGE conclusion on 2018-01-26; tokens were transferable around that time. Minor uncertainty exists around exact exchange listing timing versus TGE timestamp.
- Protocol rewards modeled as a single allocation with three linear periods reflecting issuance policy changes.
Whitepaper targets a 10-year decreasing schedule; governance later implemented a concrete reduction path starting 2022-01-31. We use ~1.89B ZIL/yr before, linear reduction to ~0.498B ZIL/yr by 2024-01-31, then constant until the 8.4B pool is exhausted.
- Exhaustion of the 8.4B protocol-rewards pool by 2024-09 is approximated.
Calculated from annualized rates given in governance posts; exact end month depends on realized DS-epoch intervals. Modeled to ensure totals match 8.4B.
- Unswapped ERC‑20 interim ZIL (~213.27M) were frozen and are effectively non-circulating.
Post-swap report states 98.3% of 12.6B interim tokens swapped; remaining tokens are defunct. Allocation totals remain per TGE; this does not change max supply.
- Staking rewards come from the same protocol reward pool as mining and do not increase total supply beyond 21B.
Governance and blog posts clarify both mining and staking rewards draw from unallocated ZIL; 2024 staking APR adjustments affect distribution, not total issuance.
- 1. https://blog.zilliqa.com/more-details-on-zilliqas-token-generation-event-4e1b78e0cf5a/
- 2. https://docs.zilliqa.com/whitepaper.pdf
- 3. https://blog.zilliqa.com/zilliqa-project-update-89f77583419/
- 4. https://blog.zilliqa.com/zilliqa-successfully-wraps-up-token-swap-f8942e1ce743/
- 5. https://gov.zilliqa.com/t/zilliqa-incentive-layer/1017
- 6. https://blog.zilliqa.com/road-to-zilliqa-2-0-adjusting-staking-rewards-for-long-term-sustainability/
- 7. https://blog.zilliqa.com/zilliqa-staking-rewards-adjusted-to-reduce-inflation/
Allocations
Description
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Zilliqa is a high-performance blockchain platform that uses sharding technology to achieve scalability, security, and sustainability. Zilliqa supports smart contracts written in Scilla, a functional programming language designed for safety and verifiability.
| Sector: | Layer 1 |
| Blockchain: | Other L1 |