Unlock Cadence
Unlock cadence is the interval at which a vesting tranche actually releases: per second, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly.
TradFi parallel: Like the difference between a bond paying monthly and one paying annually. The coupon over a year is identical, but the cash arrives on a different rhythm, and the payment date is what the market actually trades around.
Key Takeaways
- 01Start with the definition: Unlock cadence is the interval at which a vesting tranche actually releases: per second, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly.
- 02Read the governing documentation before treating a label as a supply conclusion
- 03Separate scheduled entitlement, contractual transferability, and actual circulating supply
- 04Use dated on-chain or canonical data for any amount, percentage, or event date
- 05A buyback, unlock, burn, or reward label does not by itself establish the net supply effect
- 06Remove or qualify any project-specific conclusion that cannot be reproduced from a primary source
How It Works
Unlock cadence is the interval at which a vesting tranche actually releases: per second, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly.
The label alone does not establish a token's current supply impact. To evaluate unlock cadence, read the governing token documentation and contract rules, distinguish scheduled entitlement from tokens that are actually transferable or circulating, and use dated on-chain data for any quantity. Do not infer a burn, price effect, holder behavior, or release amount from the label alone.
When a claim depends on a figure, date, allocation, fee route, or prior market event, retain it only when the underlying primary document, governance record, contract state, or reproducible data snapshot is available. Otherwise state the mechanism generally and leave the project-specific conclusion out.
Real World Examples
Scenario 1: verify before concluding
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Use the project's published rules, the relevant contract or governance record, and a dated supply snapshot. Keep only conclusions that those records directly support.
Scenario 2: verify before concluding
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Use the project's published rules, the relevant contract or governance record, and a dated supply snapshot. Keep only conclusions that those records directly support.
Scenario 3: verify before concluding
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Use the project's published rules, the relevant contract or governance record, and a dated supply snapshot. Keep only conclusions that those records directly support.
Scenario 4: verify before concluding
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Use the project's published rules, the relevant contract or governance record, and a dated supply snapshot. Keep only conclusions that those records directly support.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a monthly unlock counted as a cliff or as linear vesting?
Check the governing documentation, contract state, and dated on-chain or canonical data. The answer depends on the project's specific rules and current supply state, so do not infer it from the label alone.
Why is emission bucketed into 1D, 7D, 1M, 6M, 1Y and 4Y?
Check the governing documentation, contract state, and dated on-chain or canonical data. The answer depends on the project's specific rules and current supply state, so do not infer it from the label alone.
Can one token run more than one cadence?
Check the governing documentation, contract state, and dated on-chain or canonical data. The answer depends on the project's specific rules and current supply state, so do not infer it from the label alone.
Does a faster cadence mean less price impact?
Check the governing documentation, contract state, and dated on-chain or canonical data. The answer depends on the project's specific rules and current supply state, so do not infer it from the label alone.
Related Terms
linear vestingcliff unlockvesting scheduleemissiontoken emission schedulerelease mechanismcumulative vs non cumulative unlocks
Track on Tokenomist
Supply-side analysis for educational purposes. Not financial advice. Verify assumption and precision labels on the relevant token page.
Tokenomist.ai provides a complete solution for supply-side tokenomics data. Analyze future token emissions, track vesting schedules, and compare standardized tokenomics and allocation across projects to gain actionable insights