Xai, Immutable, and Pixels Among July's Biggest Ethereum Gaming Token Unlocks

July is poised to be a big month for crypto gaming token unlocks.

Throughout the month of July, over $148 million worth of crypto gaming tokens will be unlocked and can enter the market, according to data from TokenUnlocks. And all of the projects in question have launched tokens on Ethereum.

Many crypto projects make their total supply of tokens available across days, weeks, months or years. Often, when a project launches its token, it locks up a significant amount of the supply that’s intended for collaborators, community rewards, and perhaps investors. Those tokens are then gradually unlocked for access and trading over time.

Token Unlocks reported that Ethereum layer-3 gaming network Xai would be releasing 198.4 million XAI tokens ($60.76 million) in a “cliff unlock” on July 9. The majority of these tokens will be going to investors and the team, with just over $7 million worth going into the ecosystem and reserve.

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Key contributors to Xai, the Ethereum-based layer-3 gaming network, say they aim to build the next Valve, developing their ecosystem in a similar way to the video game titan behind the Steam marketplace and some of the best-loved games of all time. Tobias Batton, co-founder and CEO of Ex Populus—a game studio that works closely with the Xai Foundation as a “labs company” of sorts, he previously told Decrypt’s GG—explained that the Valve model is how they envision the future of the gaming network...

A cliff unlock, as defined by TokenUnlocks, releases a bulk of tokens at one moment rather than drip feeding across multiple days. Linear unlocks will do the opposite, slowly releasing tokens daily over a specified period of time.

However, Xai has disputed the details. According to a Xai representative, the network will unlock tokens over the course of a 30-day period starting July 9. Furthermore, Xai said that its team has agreed to relock its tokens for another six months, which means just 107.9 million tokens will ultimately be unlocked and in circulation during that span.

The Ronin network, for example, will release 404,290 RON tokens ($671,000) every day for 92 days beginning on July 27, resulting in just over $5 million being released over this period. Meanwhile, Gala Games will unlock 2.14 million GALA ($44,800) each day for a whole year, totalling $639,910 when July is all said and done.

Immutable will release 32.47 million IMX tokens ($38.32 million) on July 12 in a cliff unlock; these tokens will go to project and ecosystem development. A week later, on July 19, Ronin farming game Pixels will have a cliff unlock for 54.38 million PIXEL ($10.19 million), which will account for 7.05% of its circulating supply.

‘Pixels’ Creators Plot More Crypto Games—Maybe on Telegram Too

Pixels has been one of the hottest crypto games all year, with its late 2023 migration to Ethereum gaming network Ronin and February’s token launch propelling the social farming game in front of millions of players. And now the developers are exploring other games in the same universe. In a recent interview around the Pixels Chapter 2 gameplay launch, founder Luke Barwikowski shared with Decrypt’s GG that the studio is working on other games in the Pixels universe, and that it is teaming up with...

ApeCoin—the Ethereum token tied to the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem including the Otherside metaverse game—is set to release 15.6 million APE ($10.89 million) on July 17, accounting for 2.31% of its circulating supply.

Last but not least, Parallel will be waiting to finish the month with 750,000 PRIME ($5.54 million) unlocking for those who invested in the studio behind the Ethereum NFT card-battler.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor's note: This story was updated on July 10 to represent Xai's updated details regarding its token unlocks.