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Is the bull market here? RootData released the Q4 popular project unlocking alert: 1,537 projects revealed token supply patterns, no longer just liquidity exit providers

Core Viewpoint
Summary: In this round of cases, 1,537 projects with unlocking plans from RootData were selected as samples. Similarly, in modifying the unlocking schedule, there are significant differences in the future supply quantity and rhythm of each project.
RootData
2026-09-30 15:32:14
In this round of cases, 1,537 projects with unlocking plans from RootData were selected as samples. Similarly, in modifying the unlocking schedule, there are significant differences in the future supply quantity and rhythm of each project.

Entering the fourth quarter of 2026. ALLO and HUMA will see the first concentrated unlocking of shares related to teams and investors in November; DBR and ZRO will continue to release quarterly and monthly; ENA will release the remaining investor shares in a one-time release on October 5. This article combines RootData data and project announcements to summarize recent unlocking arrangements and changes in token economics over the past two years.

I. Upcoming Unlocking of Popular Tokens

The current release of ALLO and HUMA belongs to a Cliff, which is the first concentrated unlocking after the lock-up period ends; DBR and ZRO are released on a fixed schedule. The table below lists the maximum supply ratio, while the main text separately lists the circulating supply ratio at the time of verification. The circulating amount may change, so the latter ratio may differ from that on the unlocking day.

Main Unlocking Events in Q4

Is the bull market here? RootData released the Q4 popular project unlocking alert: 1,537 projects revealed token supply patterns, no longer just liquidity exit providers

Allora ALLO: Internal First Unlock of Approximately 160 Million Tokens

Allora is a decentralized AI network. Investors and core contributors will receive 31.05% and 17.5% of the total supply, respectively, and after a one-year lock-up period, they will release 33% of their shares, totaling approximately 160.2 million tokens. Based on the approximately 250 million circulating supply listed on the calendar platform, this unlocking represents about 64% of the existing circulating supply; combined with other batches during the same period, the total number is approximately 163.9 million tokens.

This batch of newly transferable shares is mainly held by investors and core contributors, and the scale is relatively large compared to the existing circulating supply. Allora already has a mainnet and financing foundation, but the current data lacks continuous payment demand and revenue data, making it temporarily difficult to quantify the business's capacity to absorb the new supply. The actual selling volume will also depend on the disposal arrangements of these holders. Source: ALLO official rules.

Huma HUMA: Internal Unlock Delayed by Six Months

Huma focuses on PayFi, providing financing and liquidity for real payments. The first unlocking for the team, advisors, and major investors has been postponed from May 26, 2026, to November 26, 2026. These shares account for a total of 39.9% of the total supply, and if estimated to be released evenly over the subsequent 12 quarters, the internal first batch is approximately 332.5 million tokens; combined with other categories during the same period, the total is approximately 459 million to 479 million tokens, accounting for about 4.59% to 4.79% of the maximum supply of 10 billion tokens.

Huma's business revolves around real payments, and the six-month delay pushes back the circulation time of internal shares. However, the current payment scale cannot be directly converted into HUMA's purchasing demand, and how much value the token can gain from business growth still relates to usage and value distribution mechanisms. This adjustment only involves part of the internal shares, while categories such as ecology and treasury will still be released according to their respective arrangements. Source: HUMA token rules.

deBridge DBR and LayerZero ZRO: Quarterly and Monthly Unlocks

The quarterly unlocking of DBR is approximately 618.3 million tokens, which accounts for about 10.44% of the circulating supply at that time according to the calendar platform, with similar quarterly batches to follow. deBridge provides cross-chain trading and asset transfer matching, and funds do not need to stay in the protocol for a long time, making TVL (Total Value Locked) difficult to fully reflect the business scale. The protocol already has fee income and buybacks, and continuous unlocking and buybacks will simultaneously affect market supply and demand. Source: DBR official rules.

The monthly unlocking of ZRO is approximately 23.63 million tokens, which accounts for about 6.69% of the circulating supply at that time according to the platform. LayerZero provides cross-chain messaging infrastructure, and the official has disclosed some buybacks of investor shares and re-locking, as well as buyback arrangements related to Stargate income. The former has delayed the sellable time of some shares, while the latter has increased the demand for token purchases; the current data is insufficient to confirm the proportion of buybacks covering monthly releases. Source: ZRO official explanation.

RootData's front-end export this time has 90 samples after deduplication by token, of which 87 have valid "next unlock value ratios," and 16 reach or exceed 10%, accounting for about 18.4%. This field is close to the ratio of unlock value to circulating market value, reflecting the supply scale rather than the expected decline. The "next batch" recorded in the snapshot and the large internal unlock discussed in this article may correspond to different dates.

Other Project Unlocking Arrangements

Is the bull market here? RootData released the Q4 popular project unlocking alert: 1,537 projects revealed token supply patterns, no longer just liquidity exit providers

The ecological quarterly release of LAYER runs parallel to the continuous release of the team and investors, with subsequent supplies dispersed across different batches. Official rules, calendar. VANA's Vega upgrade involves products and technology, and the supply and emission rates have not changed accordingly; the original release will continue.

Humanity (H) experienced a security incident and token migration in June 2026. The token correspondence and trading depth changes before and after the migration make the comparison of its price and circulating volume more complex. Official white paper, calendar updates, official recovery page. The supply rule adjustments for LISTA and STABLE will be elaborated in the second part.

Ongoing Release Projects

Is the bull market here? RootData released the Q4 popular project unlocking alert: 1,537 projects revealed token supply patterns, no longer just liquidity exit providers

Source: JTO rules, JUP plan, APT calendar, SUI plan, SUI plan data, W official announcement.

In addition, the unlocking start point for the UNITE team after the delay is September 30, 2026, and ENA's accelerated release arrangement is set for October 5, 2026.

II. Popular Projects Changing Token Economics in the Past Two Years

In the past two years, several adjustments to token economics have changed the original unlocking schedule: UNITE and Story have delayed the release of internal shares, BABY will concentrate unlocks into monthly releases, and ENA has accelerated the release of some investor shares. Destruction, permanent locking, and buybacks have respectively changed the total amount, circulating quantity, or market buying demand. The following summarizes the adjustments, distinguishing between those that have been executed and those that are yet to take effect.

Delays and Extended Lock-ups

UNITE, through governance in November 2025, has postponed the unlocking of investors, teams, and advisors by a total of 8 months. The new starting point for investors is July 30, 2026, for the team is September 30, 2026, and for advisors is August 30, 2026. The subsequent release duration and total share amounts remain unchanged; the supply is only delayed in entering circulation.

In June 2026, Story announced its name change to DATA Network and migrated the token at a 1:1 ratio to DATA. The internal holdings were first postponed from February 13, 2026, to August 13, 2026, and then the board approved a further delay of 18 months to February 13, 2028. These two delays changed the circulation time of internal shares, while the total amount, distribution, and ownership remain unchanged.

HUMA has postponed the internal first unlock by 6 months to November 26, 2026, while the ecology and treasury still have other releases. SAHARA has postponed the investor shares by 3 months to September 26, 2026, and the founder, core team, and advisor shares by 6 months to December 26, 2026. The adjustments only cover the aforementioned recipients.

0G adjusted the distribution of approximately 44% for the team and early investors in September 2026. The first release has been postponed from October 22, 2026, to October 22, 2027, but the subsequent release period has been compressed from 36 months to 24 months, with the overall plan still ending in September 2029. If the total share amount remains unchanged and is released evenly, the monthly release speed after the delay will increase by 50% compared to the original arrangement.

WLD's adjustment occurred earlier in July 2024, before the two-year observation window of this article: approximately 80% of the lock-up arrangements related to the TFH team and investors have been extended from three years to five years. The 80% here refers to that type of holding, not the total token supply. After extending the release period, the same batch of shares is spread over a longer time.

Batch and Linear Releases

BABY has changed the related lock-up shares for early investors, teams, and advisors to be released monthly at 1/36 starting from May 10, 2026, ending in April 2029. The original concentrated batch has been spread into a monthly arrangement, and the total amount of related shares remains unchanged. Ecological incentives and staking increases are still other sources of supply.

Wormhole launched W 2.0 in September 2025, changing the release of multiple types of shares from annual concentrated releases to bi-weekly releases, while extending some lock-up periods. The release amount on a single date is thus dispersed. Some tokens first enter foundation custody, and the selling time for the final recipients is still subject to their respective lock-up conditions, with the custody accounting time and sellable time not fully aligned.

Accelerated Releases

ENA has changed the remaining monthly releases for related original investors to a one-time release starting October 5, 2026. The market estimates approximately 1.4 billion tokens, and the final net amount is still pending verification against the buyback and release list; the adjustment does not involve all VC, team, and foundation shares unlocking simultaneously. The supply originally dispersed over subsequent months is thus concentrated earlier, and buybacks provide buying demand for part of it, but the actual net release scale has not been confirmed.

The contract lock-up exemption for ENA held by StablecoinX will take effect on October 5, 2026. Sales after the exemption still require prior written consent from the foundation; specific financing sales also need to notify 5 working days in advance, and the foundation retains the right of first refusal. These contractual restrictions will continue to affect the selling time and method of that portion of holdings.

STABLE Rewrites Lock-up Rules

STABLE's new white paper plans to include 82 billion tokens, accounting for 82% of the total, under the Universal Lock (unified lock-up rules). The plan is set to take effect on October 5, 2026, with the first release changed to December 8, 2027, followed by releases in seven overlapping phases. The new arrangement will push back the recent supply in the original calendar, but as of the time of research, it is still pending effectiveness.

The price protection clause in the new rules allows for the postponement of some releases under certain conditions, without providing price guarantees. This protection ends on December 8, 2029, at which point the remaining tokens will be fully released according to the rules. This links some release times to price conditions while retaining the final expiration supply. Voting rights and selling rights during the lock-up period are subject to different rules. Stable new white paper.

Permanent Locking and Destruction

Jupiter destroyed 3 billion JUP in January 2025, reducing the supply cap from 10 billion to 7 billion, a reduction of 30%. This portion of tokens has been removed from supply and no longer belongs to future release shares.

LISTA permanently locked 200 million tokens through LIP021 and adjusted various distributions. The permanently locked shares will no longer enter available supply, but the total supply shown in the contract may not necessarily decrease synchronously, and its handling differs from destruction. The official page still has both new and old explanations, and the old distribution ratios do not fully correspond to future release arrangements.

Suspension of Emissions and Buybacks

In the Net-Zero arrangement after the DAO vote in February 2026, JUP postponed the distribution of 700 million Jupuary tokens, suspended team reserves on-chain emissions, and set up offsets for the actual sales of Mercurial-related shares; the original 50% on-chain revenue buyback mechanism remains in place. The postponed 700 million tokens are still in the community multi-signature wallet and can be redistributed by governance in the future, not destroyed. Therefore, JUP simultaneously has three types of changes: completed supply reductions, postponed distributions, and ongoing buybacks.

The buyback mechanism for ENA has been approved by vote, with the first threshold related to a scale of $7.5 billion in USDe. The buyback scale is still influenced by the threshold trigger and subsequent execution; this information is not sufficient to confirm the actual purchase amount.

LISTA will cancel the veLISTA lock-up model in the Tokenomics 2.0 in spring 2026, shifting value distribution to buybacks. The original staked shares can exit, making it easier for existing tokens to enter trading, with no new minting. The unlocking exit and buyback purchases will simultaneously affect market supply and demand, with the final effect related to the scale of both and the sustainability of the buyback funds.

Inflation Rate and Supply Cap Adjustment

Aptos will promote supply reform in 2026, with the official panel listing a cap of 2.1 billion tokens and an annualized staking reward rate of 2.6%. During the previous verification, approximately 1.6 million tokens were added monthly, with about 164,000 tokens destroyed in the last 30 days, resulting in a net increase of approximately 1.4 million tokens. Based on this data point, APT is still in a net issuance state, with new supply from staking rewards existing alongside the unlocking of existing shares.

Conclusion

In this round of cases, 1,537 projects with unlocking plans were extracted from RootData as samples. The initial internal unlocks of ALLO and HUMA are relatively concentrated, while DBR and ZRO continue over multiple cycles. Tokenomics adjustments also show different directions: Story has postponed internal unlocks, 0G has compressed subsequent release periods while delaying, ENA has concentrated early releases, and JUP has combined destruction, suspended emissions, and buybacks. While modifying the unlocking schedule, there are already significant differences in the future supply quantity and rhythm of each project.

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