Aptos (APT), ApeCoin Prices Plunge Ahead of Token Unlocks

ApeCoin and Aptos price continued their sell-off on Monday as a sense of fear spread in the crypto industry. Aptos’s APT price plunged to a low of $5.17 on Monday and is hovering near the lowest level since January. It has retreated by more than 74% from the highest level this year.

ApeCoin, on the other hand, plunged to a low of $1.22, 81% below the YTD high. This sell-off happened as the value of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs plunged this year amid soft demand.

ApeCoin and Aptos prices will be in the spotlight this week as they unlock tokens worth millions of dollars. Aptos, which is an alternative to Ethereum and Solana, will unlock 4.54 million tokens worth over $23.3 million on Monday. 1.33 million of these tokens will go to the Aptos Foundation while the rest will move to the community.

ApeCoin, on the other hand, will unlock over 40.6 million tokens this week. At the current price, these tokens will be worth almost $50 million. These tokens will go mostly to insiders directly and indirectly. For example, Yuga Labs founder will receive tokens worth over $2.7 million. Treasury and Yuga Labs will collectively receive tokens worth over $14 million.

These cliff unlocks explain why Aptos and ApeCoin have all underperformed the crypto market this year. ApeCoin has unlocked 57.6% of the circulation supply in the past 12 months while Aptos has unlocked 88.4%.

Token unlocks, which are baked into a network’s tokenomics, are usually bearish because they lead to more tokens in circulation. They can be compared to when companies issue more shares to raise capital.

Some altcoins limit the dilutive nature of these token unlocks by burning their token. Burning is when these tokens are placed in a wallet that is inaccessible. ApeCoin and Aptos have not initiated the burning feature in the network.

Therefore, the outlook for ApeCoin and Aptos price is bearish because of their unlocks and the fact that investors are a bit fearful. This fear is happening as the prices of crude oil jumped, triggering inflation concerns.