Arbitrum price dips post massive token unlock, mass sell-off drives ARB decline

Arbitrum, an Ethereum scaling token unlocked 1.1 billion tokens in line with its schedule on Saturday. Post the unlock, there was an increase in inflow of ARB tokens to exchanges, investors that received Arbitrum token airdrops, lined up to shed their holdings and realize gains. 

ARB price is down nearly 3% on the day and the L2 token dipped nearly 19% in the past week. 

Also read: Arbitrum price readies for one of the biggest token unlocks of 2024

ARB token unlock ushers decline in Arbitrum

Arbitrum unlocked nearly 1.1 billion tokens and airdropped the unlocked tokens to its investors. Data from crypto intelligence tracker Spotonchain shows how the airdropped tokens made their way to Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges by volume. 

Within the past day, six wallet addresses that received ARB tokens from vesting contracts deposited 8.95 million ARB tokens worth $16.14 million to Binance. These wallets hold another 32.95 million in ARB tokens, worth over $56 million, according to on-chain data. These wallets could therefore add to the selling pressure on the L2 token by depositing their holdings to exchanges.

It was unclear whether the six whale wallets realized their gains in ARB tokens.

The platform identified another whale addresses that deposited 3 million ARB tokens to Binance and realized an estimated gain of $5.2 million, 127% return on its holdings. 

ARB price dips with mass token unlock

ARB price declined in response to the massive token unlock event, this is typical of assets, since an unlock increases the circulating supply. Investors that received the airdropped tokens end up realizing gains at time, increasing selling pressure and driving the asset’s price lower. ARB price crumbled following token unlock and the mass sell-off by airdrop recipients. 

At the time of writing, ARB price is $1.715 and the asset yielded nearly 18% losses in the past week. It remains to be seen whether the L2 token recovers from the recent decline.