InvestNot yet confirmed elsewhere1 publisher3 min readPublished
Aptos token unlocks still outpace staking mints nearly threefold after insider vesting ends
Aptos ends its four-year insider vesting on Oct. 12, cutting scheduled monthly APT releases about 60%, from 11.31 million tokens to 4.54 million. Every scheduled token from then goes to the Community and Foundation pools, so Foundation grant spending now sets most of the pace at which new APT reaches the market.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Core contributors and early backers were granted 324.78 million APT at genesis, 32.48% of the 1 billion minted, and received their final monthly tranche on Sept. 12.
- About 331.69 million APT of genesis supply remains locked, all of it in the Community and Foundation pools, which pay out until 2032.
- The staking reward rate has fallen from 5.19% to 2.6%; on the roughly 763 million APT staked, 63% of all tokens, that mints about 19.8 million a year.
- The Aptos Foundation said it will lock and permanently stake 210 million APT, about 37% of its mainnet holdings, and never sell or distribute it.
- Onchain Proposal #183, passed with 335.2 million APT in favor, set a 2.1 billion APT hard cap that left 904 million of headroom as of February.
Why it matters
- exposure Any selling of scheduled APT after Oct. 12 can no longer be pinned on core contributors or early backers; it has to come from pool distributions or from staking rewards.
- constraint Fee burning offsets little of the new issuance: about 0.5 million APT a year historically, and roughly 4.9 million even at ten times that rate, about a quarter of staking mints.
- constraint At the current mint pace the 2.1 billion cap is about 45 years away, so it places no practical limit on issuance; the staking reward rate is the setting that does.
The source calls staking rewards the primary source of new APT [11], and for newly minted tokens that is right. Circulation is a separate count. The Community and Foundation pools still unlock about 54.5 million APT a year [8], against roughly 19.8 million minted through staking [12], so scheduled releases outrun staking by about 2.75 times [17]. Together the two add about 74.3 million APT a year to the float, roughly 8.5% of the 871.02 million circulating on Sept. 30 [18].
The insider schedule was simple. Each month's 6.77 million [6] is exactly one forty-eighth of the 324.78 million granted at genesis [19], or about 81.2 million a year [20]. The 4.54 million a month that continues all goes to the two pools [7].
The pool schedule has a loose end. The source says the pools disburse 1/120 of their remaining balance each month [7]. Applied to the 331.69 million still locked [9], that rule gives about 2.76 million a month [26], well under 4.54 million. A flat draw fits the figures better: 331.69 million at 4.54 million a month lasts about 73 months, to late 2032, the end year the source gives [21]. If the 1/120 rule does govern a shrinking balance, releases fall each month from here and the float grows by less than 54.5 million a year [26].
The Foundation's staking pledge also tells you its size. A 210 million stake that is 37% of its mainnet holdings puts those holdings near 568 million APT [22]. At 2.6%, the stake earns about 5.46 million APT a year, equal to about 28% of everything staking mints [23].
The source includes no price or exchange-flow data, so it cannot show whether insiders sold their tranches. It does show where scheduled supply goes after Oct. 12 [3], and that can play out three ways. The Foundation cuts grant distributions by more than half from 2026 to 2027, as it projected in its Feb. 18 tokenomics update [8], and most of what unlocks stays on its books. Grant recipients sell what they receive, and the cut in releases does little for the market. Or the staking rate moves again, changing the only supply that is newly created [11].
In my view the cut is real on the schedule and unproven in the market. The 81.2 million a year that stopped went to the two insider groups [20]. The 54.5 million that continues goes to the pools, and the Foundation's projection of lower grants is what supports a smaller payout [8]. The case against my view is that the Foundation now funds its operations from rewards on its locked 210 million [15], so it has less reason to hand out pool tokens at all. If 2027 grant distributions do not come in at least half below 2026's, the 60% headline overstates the relief [4].
What to watch
- The Foundation's 2027 grant distribution figures, set against its Feb. 18 projection of a drop of more than half from 2026.
- Circulating supply near Sept. 30, 2027: the schedule plus staking points to about 945 million APT, and a materially higher figure would mean pools are releasing faster than 4.54 million a month.
- Any onchain proposal to change the 2.6% staking reward rate.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption45
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives60
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
All transaction fees are burned; from launch until mid-September 2026 the network burned around 1.9 million APT.
ReportedSupportedSource: Cryptopolitan2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [2]
The same overhaul raised gas fees tenfold; the Aptos Foundation said stablecoin transfers still cost around $0.00014.
ReportedSupportedSource: Cryptopolitan, citing Aptos Foundation2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [3]
Aptos concludes its four-year vesting schedule for core contributors and early backers on October 12, 2026; the last monthly tranche to both groups was delivered September 12, 2026. The Aptos Foundation counts the fourth anniversary of the October 2022 mainnet launch as the formal end.
- [4]
Scheduled monthly APT releases fall about 60%, from 11.31 million tokens to 4.54 million.
- [5]
At genesis core contributors were assigned 190 million APT and early backers 134.78 million, a combined 324.78 million or 32.48% of the 1 billion APT minted at launch.
- [6]
Each insider grant had a 12-month cliff and then vested monthly through month 48; both groups took 6.77 million of the 11.31 million APT released each month.
- [7]
Only the 4.54 million APT a month going to the Community and Aptos Foundation pools continues, lasting until 2032; those pools disburse 1/120 of their remaining balance each month.
- [8]
Planned yearly releases fall from around 135.7 million APT to 54.5 million. The Aptos Foundation projected the same 60% cut in its February 18 tokenomics update and said its grant distributions fall more than 50% from 2026 to 2027.
- [9]
Another 331.69 million APT of genesis supply remains locked in vesting, all in the Community and Foundation pools.
- [10]
Circulating supply of APT stood at 871.02 million as of September 30, with total supply of about 1.2 billion.
- [11]
Staking rewards are now the primary source of new APT; the annual reward rate has fallen from 5.19% to 2.6%.
- [12]
About 763 million APT, or 63% of all tokens, is staked with validators; at 2.6% that stake mints about 19.8 million APT a year. Unstaking takes up to 14 days.
- [13]
A hard cap of 2.1 billion APT applies; Proposal #183 passed onchain with 335.2 million APT voting in favor and around 1,500 voting against.
- [14]
Mainnet minted 1 billion APT and staking added another 196 million by February, leaving 904 million APT of headroom under the cap.
- [15]
The Aptos Foundation said it would lock up and permanently stake 210 million APT, which it said would never be sold or distributed; the stake is about 37% of the Foundation's mainnet holdings and its rewards fund Foundation operations.
- [16]
Fee burn averaged about 0.5 million APT a year from October 2022 to mid-September 2026; ten times that is about 4.9 million a year, roughly a quarter of the 19.8 million staking mints.
- [17]
Scheduled pool releases of about 54.5 million APT a year are about 2.75 times the roughly 19.8 million APT minted by staking each year.
- [18]
Scheduled releases plus staking mints add about 74.3 million APT a year to circulation, about 8.5% of the 871.02 million circulating on Sept. 30.
- [19]
The insiders' 6.77 million APT monthly release equals one forty-eighth of their 324.78 million genesis grant.
- [20]
Insider releases ran at about 81.2 million APT a year.
- [21]
At 4.54 million APT a month, the 331.69 million still locked lasts about 73 months, ending in late 2032.
- [22]
If 210 million APT is about 37% of the Foundation's mainnet holdings, those holdings are near 568 million APT.
- [23]
At a 2.6% reward rate, the Foundation's 210 million APT stake earns about 5.46 million APT a year, about 28% of the 19.8 million staking mints each year.
- [24]
At 19.8 million APT a year, the 904 million APT of headroom under the 2.1 billion cap would take about 45 years to use.
- [25]
If only scheduled releases and staking add supply, circulating APT a year after Sept. 30, 2026 would be about 945 million.
- [26]
One-120th of the 331.69 million APT still locked is about 2.76 million a month, below the stated 4.54 million monthly release.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- cryptopolitan.comAPT monthly releases drop to 4.54 million as Aptos team and investor vesting closes
1 article · October 8, 2026
Topics and entities
Follow any of these and your For You feed starts watching them — no settings page required.