Vesting schedules are the foundational mechanism that controls token supply flow from allocation to circulation. At a token generation event (TGE), the total supply is allocated across categories — team, investors, ecosystem incentives, community, treasury — but most of these tokens are locked in smart contracts with time-based release conditions. The vesting schedule defines exactly when each category's tokens become claimable. Most vesting schedules combine two structural elements: cliff periods and release phases. A cliff is an initial lockup where no tokens vest — a 12-month cliff means zero tokens become available during the first year. After the cliff expires, tokens begin releasing either linearly (continuous daily or block-by-block vesting), in discrete steps (monthly or quarterly batches), or through hybrid structures that combine both approaches. A typical investor schedule might include a 12-month cliff followed by 24 months of linear vesting, while team schedules often have longer cliffs (18-24 months) to signal commitment. Understanding the interaction between different stakeholder schedules is critical for supply analysis. When multiple categories' cliffs expire simultaneously, the combined unlock can create concentrated sell pressure. Conversely, well-designed vesting schedules stagger releases across categories to distribute supply impact over time. The precision of vesting data matters significantly — some projects publish exact smart contract parameters while others provide only approximate timelines, and the reliability of supply projections depends on this underlying data quality.