More than $556.7 million in locked tokens are set to hit the market in the third week of August, with LayerZero (ZRO), Kaito (KAITO) and Soon (SOON) making up the bulk of the scheduled unlocks. The releases, spread across Aug. 20 and Aug. 23, will add fresh supply to trading desks and could test near-term liquidity in each asset.
LayerZero's Aug. 20 unlock
LayerZero, the interoperability protocol that lets dApps talk across chains without traditional bridges, will release 25.71 million ZRO on Aug. 20. That's 4.4% of the circulating supply and worth roughly $19.39 million at current prices. The allocation splits three ways: 13.42 million ZRO goes to strategic partners, 10.63 million to core contributors, and 1.67 million is earmarked for repurchased tokens. For a project that's been around since 2022, this is a routine vesting event—but the size of the partner tranche stands out.
Kaito's creator incentive push
Kaito, an AI-powered Web3 information platform that aggregates crypto market data from social media, forums and news, unlocks 32.6 million KAITO on Aug. 20. That's 7.63% of released supply and worth approximately $11.48 million. The biggest single slice—15 million tokens—goes to long-term creator incentives. Another 7.16 million funds ecosystem and network growth, 6.94 million goes to core contributors, 2.31 million to early backers, and 1.19 million to the foundation. The heavy tilt toward creator incentives suggests the team is doubling down on content-driven engagement as its core growth loop.
Soon's multi-bucket release
Soon, a high-performance Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) Rollup built on the Super Adoption Stack, unlocks 20.24 million SOON on Aug. 23. That's 3.76% of released supply and worth about $3.85 million. The release is split across seven buckets: 6.67 million to the SOON Squad, 4.17 million to the ecosystem, 2.78 million to team and co-builders, 2.22 million each to SOON Pill and community incentives, 1.67 million for foundation and treasury, and 520,830 for airdrop and liquidity. It's a wide distribution, but the team and co-builder portion is modest relative to the rest.
Other unlocks in the same window
Beyond the big three, the same week sees unlocks for MBG, ZKsync (ZK) and Solv Protocol (SOLV). Details on those weren't immediately available, but they contribute to the combined $556.7 million figure. For traders, the key dates are Aug. 20 and Aug. 23—when the larger tranches actually unlock. Whether recipients sell or hold will determine how much real pressure hits the market.
