After a large amount of vested Arbitrum (ARB) tokens were unlocked on March 16, whales flooded cryptocurrencycurrency exchanges with them.On March 18, at least 11 whales exchanged 34 million ARB tokens, totaling approximately $58 million at the time of writing.
This decision was taken in response to the layer-2 blockchain project Arbitrum’s large token unlock on March 16, which witnessed the release of 1.1 billion ARB tokens worth $2.32 billion. According to cryptocurrencycurrency vesting tracker Token Unlocks, 673.5 million of these tokens were unlocked via a “Cliff Unlock,” meaning they were issued all at once.
Investors were concerned about the unexpected influx of unlocked tokens, with some predicting that many investors would take short positions against the asset.
The price of the ARB token immediately reflected the impact of the token unlock. On March 16, the day after the unlock, ARB’s value decreased to $1.84, down from a high of $2.22 on March 13. The token hit a seven-day low the next day, March 17, and went even lower to $1.66 on Monday morning.
The ARB coin is now trading at around $1.70, over 29% down than its all-time high of $2.39, reached in January. Meanwhile, the price has plummeted by 23.42% due to the unlocked tokens.
Investors and analysts are closely monitoring how the market reacts to the token unlock and any potential implications for the future of the layer-2 blockchain as the Arbitrum project progresses through this critical stage.
