Aptos (APT) tokens surged as much as 15% on Wednesday after the network announced a partnership with Microsoft (MSFT). The surge comes ahead of a supply unlock that could add selling pressure, data suggests.
Just over 2% of the APT supply – worth $33 million at current prices – is set to be unlocked on August 12 at 05:30 am UTC, data shows. This is part of a planned move and will decrease locked tokens to 80% of the total supply.
Unlocks increase the circulating supply of any token in the open market, adding bearish sentiment if holders choose to sell and demand fails to keep up – causing prices to plunge quickly.
As such, Aptos has previously been criticized by the broader crypto community for predatory tokenomics and concerns over the distribution of tokens – where core contributors, investors and the Aptos Foundation received almost half the 1 billion tokens issued.
In contrast, Ethereum allocated just 9.9% of ether (ETH) supply to the founding team and another 9.9% to the Ethereum Foundation during its 2015 issuance.
Wednesday’s price surge came as Aptos Labs, a blockchain started by former Meta Inc. employees, said it was expanding its tools and services using Microsoft’s artificial intelligence technology. Planned products include a chatbot called Aptos Assistant and AI tools for smart contract programming.
At the time of writing, APT was up over 9% at $7.31.
