StarkNet (STRK) Price Jumps 11% As StarkWare Changes Token Unlocking Schedule

StarkNet’s native cryptocurrency STRK has registered an 11% surge in its price in the last 24 hours moving all the way to $2.10. This comes as a major relief for StarkNet as the altcoin faced huge selling pressure after the STRK token airdrop.

The recent STRK price rally is that StarkWare, the blockchain company behind the Layer 2 scalability protocol Starknet, has adjusted the token release structure for its token STRK.

StarkWare Undertakes Gradual Unlocking of STRK Tokens

According to an official statement, StarkWare has decided to implement a more gradual unlocking process for STRK. In response to concerns raised by users, the company has reduced the initial token release from 13.4% to 0.64%. This adjustment aims to address feedback suggesting that releasing a large portion of tokens to a select few at launch could be perceived as “predatory”.

StarkWare clarified that tokens held by early contributors and investors of StarkNet are under a lockup period. These parties played a crucial role in supporting StarkWare during its research and initial development of Starknet.

About one-third of the tokens held by these early contributors and investors, totaling around 1.3 billion tokens, were scheduled to unlock on April 15th. Initially, StarkWare scheduled the token launch for November 29, 2023, but later postponed it by five months to April 15, 2024

StarkNet Token Unlocking Plan

Under the revised plan, only 64 million tokens, equivalent to 0.64% of the total 10 billion StarkNet tokens, will be unlocked on April 15. Subsequently, an additional 64 million tokens will be released each month. Starting from March 15, 2025, the monthly token release will escalate to 1.27% (127 million tokens) and persist for the subsequent two years.

With the updated unlocking schedule, 580 million tokens held by early contributors and investors are set to be unlocked by the close of 2024, contrasting with the initial plan of unlocking 2 billion tokens within the same timeframe. Additionally, 1.4 billion more tokens will gradually become available by the end of 2025, followed by the unlocking of another 1.5 billion tokens by the end of 2026. Lastly, 380 million tokens are earmarked for unlocking by March 15, 2027.

With today’s rally, the StarkNet price has managed to cover the lost ground but still trades 11% down on the weekly chart.