Glossary
Vesting
A schedule that gradually unlocks tokens granted to a team, investor, or contributor — designed to align incentives over time and prevent immediate dumping.
Vesting locks granted tokens behind a release schedule. A typical team grant might cliff for 12 months (no tokens released) then vest linearly over 36 months (1/36 of the balance released per month thereafter).
Vesting schedules matter enormously: a token whose unlock cliff is weeks away faces predictable sell pressure no matter how strong the project. Reading a token's vesting schedule and current circulating versus fully diluted supply is one of the highest-signal pieces of research you can do.