The Radix Token Unlock was a transition from the price-vesting of $XRD to freely transferrable tokens, enacted on September 15th, 2021.
Background
In August 2021 Radix proposed changing to an immediate full unlock of all tokens that were subject to a price-vesting mechanism, and conducted community surveys to gauge sentiment on this proposal. Originally, a significant portion of the $XRD supply was subject to a price-based unlocking mechanism, whereby tokens would become available based on (e)XRD reaching certain price thresholds over time.
Community Surveys
In the initial community survey, conducted from August 23-29, 2021, Radix asked participants via a single yes/no question whether all locked $XRD tokens should be unlocked immediately or remain on the existing unlock schedule. The survey required a verified Instapass account and email address to participate. Out of the responses, 66.8% voted in favor of the immediate unlock.
Given the results of the first survey, Radix then announced a second survey weighted by the number of $XRD held in Radix wallet addresses linked to verified Instapass accounts. This second survey ran from September 1-5, 2021. Overall 72.34% of respondents, controlling 74.6% of the eligible $XRD supply, voted for the immediate unlock.
Reasons for Unlocking
There were several factors that motivated Radix to propose the immediate full unlock of all remaining locked $XRD tokens, despite the original staged price-based unlock schedule.
First, within two weeks of the mainnet launch on July 28, 2021, over 48% of the circulating $XRD supply was already staked across more than 130 validator nodes, indicating a high degree of decentralization and security.
In addition, development was progressing rapidly on the Alexandria network upgrade, which the team felt would benefit from the simplified tokenomics and further distribution enabled by the unlock.
Finally, with the majority of survey respondents in favor, RDX Works agreed that fully unlocking the tokens was one of the most effective ways to accelerate overall adoption and decentralization of the network in line with their long-term goals.
The Unlock
Radix proceeded with the final unlock of all remaining locked $XRD tokens on September 15, 2021, with the process completing between 14:00-17:00 UTC.
At the time of the unlock, the tokenomics of $XRD were:
- 9.6 billion $XRD circulating supply.
- 12 billion $XRD total supply.
- 24 billion $XRD maximum supply to be reached via an annual emission rate over at least 40 years
- ~48% of the supply locked via staking
- 15,000 $XRD in network fees had been burnt at the time of the final unlock.
Impact
The unlocking of all remaining $XRD tokens had an immediate impact on trading activity and network growth.
In the first 24 hours after the unlock, over $65 million in daily trading volume of $XRD was recorded across exchanges.
The increased liquidity and simplified tokenomics contributed to continuing growth in awareness and staking participation on the network. By the next weekly update on September 16th, over 1.5 billion $XRD - representing over 15% of the total supply - was staked across validator nodes.
Radix also saw a surge in social media followers, up over 10% in the two weeks following the unlock. This indicated an expanding community beyond just those holding unlocked tokens.