cryptoglobe.com
The price of Arbitrum (ARB), a leading layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum network, has experienced a decline following a significant token unlock event that saw large investors, colloquially known as whales, sell-off a significant amount on exchanges.
According to blockchain analysis service Lookonchain, Arbitrum whales deposited roughly $58 million worth of ARB tokens into cryptocurrency exchanges after the unlock, selling 34 million ARB tokens on leading trading platforms in a move that added significant selling pressure to the market.
After the massive unlocking of $ARB, 11 whales deposited a total of 34M $ARB($58M) into the exchanges.https://t.co/Lcr5S3wE3t pic.twitter.com/jTBl5f3kQ5
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 18, 2024
On March 16, a total of 1.11 billion ARB tokens, representing nearly 42% of the circulating supply, were unlocked. Data from TokenUnlocks reveals the breakdown of unlocked tokens: 673.5 million ARB worth $1.37 billion went to the project’s core team, future team members, and advisors, while 438.25 million ARB valued at over $894 million were distributed to investors.
At the time of writing, ARB is trading at $1.58, after losing around 24% of its value over the past week and rising just 1% so far this year, significantly underperforming the wider cryptocurrency market.
Despite the price dip, Arbitrum remains a prominent player in the layer-2 scaling landscape. It currently boasts the fifth-highest total value locked (TVL) among all blockchain networks, according to DeFi Llama, a decentralized finance (DeFi) data tracker, having $3.2 billion worth of assets locked on its smart contracts.
Ahead of Arbitrum are four major blockchains with higher figures locked in their smart contracts, including Solana ($SOL) with $3.79 billion, BNB Chain with $5.35 billion, TRON with $9.4 billion, and Ethereum with $47.8 billion.
Featured image via Unsplash.