Aptos formally closed out its four-year insider token schedule on October 12, the fourth anniversary of the network’s October 2022 mainnet launch, cutting scheduled APT issuance by roughly 60%. The Foundation’s tokenomics update flagged the milestone ahead of time, noting that the four-year unlock cycle for initial investors and core contributors concludes in October 2026 and reduces annualized supply unlocks by about 60%.
The change removes the network’s two largest scheduled seller cohorts from its supply schedule. At genesis, core contributors were allocated 190 million APT and early backers 134.78 million APT, a combined 324.78 million tokens equal to 32.48% of the 1 billion APT minted at launch. Each grant carried a 12-month cliff followed by monthly vesting through month 48, and the two groups received their final tranche on September 12, 2026.
What the Vesting Cut Changes
After October 12, only the Community and Aptos Foundation pools remain on the unlock schedule. Together they release 4.54 million APT a month, down from 11.31 million, with annualized releases falling from about 135.7 million APT to 54.5 million. Each pool disburses one 120th of its remaining balance monthly through 2032, and roughly 331.69 million APT of the genesis supply stays locked across the two pools.
A Wider Tokenomics Overhaul Runs Alongside
The 60% reduction is the front edge of a broader supply overhaul approved through on-chain governance as Proposal #183. The Foundation locked and permanently staked 210 million APT, about 37% of its mainnet holdings and nearly 18% of circulating supply, and committed never to sell or distribute it. A 2.1 billion APT hard cap now bounds issuance, annual staking rewards were cut from 5.19% to 2.6%, and gas fees were raised tenfold with all fees burned.
What the Change Does and Does Not Fix
Removing the 6.77 million APT monthly insider tranche lowers scheduled supply, but it does not stop new issuance. About 763 million APT, roughly 63% of all tokens, remains staked, and at a 2.6% reward rate that position still mints around 19.8 million APT a year. Unlock calendars also tend to be priced in ahead of time, and the change leaves the 1.196 billion APT already in circulation untouched. The Foundation is betting that rising burns, including those from the on-chain Decibel perpetuals exchange, projected to burn more than 32 million APT annually as it scales, will eventually outpace emissions.
What to Watch Next
The first release under the smaller schedule lands within days, giving an early read on how the reduced drip interacts with staking and burns. On the demand side, the Foundation is concentrating resources on high-throughput trading and institutional finance, building on efforts such as its $50 million push into AI agents and on-chain finance. Whether APT’s supply pressure eases will depend on whether activity-driven burns and the smaller drip outpace the roughly 19.8 million APT that staking still mints each year.
