Top 5 token unlocks of the week (May 14-19): STRK, ARB, SEI, PYTH, AEVO

Layer 2 networks face the heaviest supply pressure of the week.

Starknet opens the calendar tomorrow with a 4.05% cliff release, followed by Arbitrum’s 92.65 million-token unlock on Friday.

Combined notional across the five tokens lands above $30 million, with the bulk concentrated in team and investor allocations rather than foundation reserves.

STRK unlocks 4.05% of supply on May 15 in cliff release

Starknet (STRK) releases 127 million tokens tomorrow, May 15, in a cliff unlock representing 4.05% of circulating supply.

The split: 66.6 million tokens (~$2.7M) to Early Contributors and 60.4 million tokens (~$2.5M) to Investors.

At STRK’s current price near $0.0427, the unlock notional is approximately $5.4 million. The release falls inside Starknet’s 31-month linear schedule running through March 15, 2027.

The unlock lands directly after Starknet’s May 12 strkBTC launch, which drove a 50% intraday price surge by enabling Bitcoin DeFi on the L2 through the SNIP-36 privacy framework.

The test for STRK is whether strkBTC-driven demand absorbs the cliff supply or whether Early Contributors and Investors move tokens to centralized exchanges within 72 hours.

ARB drops 92.65M tokens to team and investors on May 16

Arbitrum (ARB) releases 92.65 million tokens on Friday, May 16, representing 1.71% of circulating supply at a notional value of approximately $13.36 million.

The team, future team, and advisors receive 56.13 million ARB. Investors receive 36.52 million ARB.

Arbitrum operates the largest Ethereum L2 by TVL with a $1.4B market cap and ~$300M daily volume give the unlock-to-volume ratio room to absorb the release without major impact, though concentration in team allocations means tokens are immediately subject to discretionary sale.

SEI releases 0.95% of supply on May 15

Sei (SEI) unlocks approximately $3.8 million in tokens on Thursday, representing 0.95% of circulating supply.

The release is structurally modest relative to SEI’s $1.2 billion market cap and average daily volume near $80 million, putting the unlock-to-daily-volume ratio at under 5%, historically a level where market absorption tends to dominate over price impact.

PYTH cliff unlock scheduled for May 19

Pyth Network (PYTH) holds a scheduled cliff unlock on Monday, May 19. Pyth provides oracle infrastructure for over 90 blockchains and remains one of the most-integrated price data protocols across the DeFi sector.

The specific token amount for the May 19 release has not been published in advance by the Pyth Data Association, which is consistent with the protocol’s prior unlock pattern of disclosing exact figures within 72 hours of release.

AEVO moves DAO-held tokens into treasury on May 15

Aevo (AEVO) releases approximately 80 million tokens on Thursday in a structural shift moving remaining DAO-held supply into protocol treasury control.

Aevo operates a derivatives DEX built on an Ethereum L2 and was incubated by Ribbon Finance.

The token’s $60 million market capitalisation makes it the smallest entry on this list, but liquidity remains adequate with 24-hour volume near $8 million.

What the calendar signals

The L2 sector takes the heaviest hit this week: STRK and ARB combined release roughly $18.8 million in new supply across 48 hours.

Both are team and investor allocations, not foundation holds, meaning the tokens are immediately subject to discretionary sale.

Sector pressure is most likely to land on smaller L2 names through correlated trading rather than on STRK and ARB directly, which both carry sufficient daily volume to absorb their respective unlocks without disorderly impact.