TL;DR

TGE unlock percentage is the portion of a token category’s allocation that becomes immediately available at the Token Generation Event. It determines the initial circulating supply on day one. Common patterns include 0% TGE unlock for team and advisor tokens, 10-20% for community tokens, and 100% for liquidity and public sale tokens.

How It Works

Every allocation category has a tgeUnlockPct parameter, set between 0% and 100%. This percentage determines how many tokens from that category are available the moment the token goes live.

The calculation is straightforward: TGE tokens for a category equal the category’s total token amount multiplied by its TGE unlock percentage. If a Team category holds 18% of a 1,000,000 token supply with 0% TGE unlock, zero team tokens are available at launch. If a Community category holds 20% of supply with 15% TGE unlock, 30,000 tokens (20% x 1,000,000 x 15%) are immediately circulating.

TGE Unlock by Category

The TGE unlock percentage varies significantly across categories because each stakeholder group has different liquidity needs and trust requirements.

Team: 0%. In most tokenomics designs, team tokens have 0% TGE unlock. The founding team’s financial alignment typically comes from long-term vesting rather than day-one selling. All four default templates in the designer follow this pattern. A non-zero team TGE unlock increases the Insider TGE Unlock risk factor.

Advisors: 0%. Like team tokens, advisor allocations should be fully locked at TGE. Advisors contribute expertise and connections, and their compensation should vest over time to ensure continued engagement. Setting advisor TGE unlock above 0% signals that advisory roles are being used as a mechanism for quick exits.

Private Sale / Investors: 0-10%. Early investors may receive a small TGE unlock (typically 5-10%) as a gesture of good faith, especially if their investment funded the initial liquidity pool. However, the majority of investor tokens should be locked behind a cliff and vest over 18-24 months. The Standard DeFi template uses 10% TGE unlock for Private Sale.

Public Sale: 100%. Public sale participants buy tokens at or near market price, often during a public offering. Since they paid fair value and did not receive a discount, there is no justification for locking their tokens. Immediate access is the standard.

Community / Airdrop: 10-20%. Community tokens need partial TGE unlock to enable initial governance participation, staking, and ecosystem activity. Too low (0-5%) and the community cannot meaningfully participate at launch. Too high (50%+) and airdrop recipients may dump tokens immediately. The Standard DeFi template uses 15% community TGE unlock.

Ecosystem: 0-10%. Ecosystem tokens fund grants and partnerships, which rarely need immediate disbursement. A small TGE unlock (5%) allows the project to fund time-sensitive launch integrations, with the rest vesting over 24-36 months.

Treasury: 0%. Treasury reserves are long-term safety nets. They should not be accessible at launch. A cliff of 3-6 months followed by slow quarterly vesting is the standard approach.

Liquidity: 100%. Liquidity tokens exist solely to seed DEX trading pools. They are typically 100% unlocked at TGE so that trading can begin immediately at launch.

Calculating Total TGE Circulating Supply

The total TGE circulating supply is the sum of all categories’ TGE unlock amounts. This number represents the initial supply available for trading at month 0 and directly affects price discovery, market depth, and early trading dynamics.

For the Standard DeFi template, the TGE circulating calculation looks like this:

• Team: 18% allocation x 0% TGE = 0%
• Advisors: 5% x 0% = 0%
• Private Sale: 15% x 10% = 1.5%
• Public Sale: 5% x 100% = 5%
• Community: 20% x 15% = 3%
• Ecosystem: 20% x 5% = 1%
• Treasury: 10% x 0% = 0%
• Liquidity: 7% x 100% = 7%

Total TGE circulating: 17.5% of total supply.

This 17.5% becomes the circulating supply at month 0 in the timeline, and it is the baseline from which all vesting releases grow the circulating supply over time.

TGE Unlock and Risk Scoring

TGE unlock affects two of the five risk factors.

Insider TGE Unlock (25% weight) measures how much supply insiders can access immediately. Insider categories are Team, Advisors, and Private Sale. The scoring calculates the weighted sum of insider TGE unlocks as a percentage of total supply. If this exceeds 15%, the factor scores 100 (maximum risk). At 0%, it scores 0.

TGE Circulating (15% weight) measures the total TGE circulating supply across all categories. Higher circulating percentages at TGE mean more tokens available for immediate selling. This factor does not distinguish between insider and community tokens because any large amount of circulating supply at launch creates volatility risk.

The Tradeoff

Setting TGE unlock too low starves the market of liquidity. If only 3-5% of supply circulates at TGE, the token may have thin order books, high slippage, and wild price swings from small trades. Setting TGE unlock too high floods the market with supply and can crash the price before the project gains traction.

The sweet spot is typically 10-25% total TGE circulating supply. This provides enough depth for healthy price discovery while keeping the majority of supply locked in vesting schedules that release gradually over months and years.

Try It Yourself

Set TGE unlock percentages for each category and see how they combine to determine your launch-day circulating supply. The risk score updates instantly to show whether your TGE settings are conservative, moderate, or aggressive. Try the Tokenomics Designer →

Related Concepts

• Token Generation Event: The launch event at which TGE unlock tokens become available, marking month 0 of the token’s life.
• Circulating Supply: Starts at the TGE circulating amount and grows as vesting schedules release additional tokens over time.
• Cliff Period: The lockup window after TGE during which no vesting occurs. TGE unlocked tokens are the only ones available during the cliff.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a safe total TGE unlock percentage?

A safe total TGE unlock percentage is typically between 10% and 25% of total supply. This range provides enough circulating tokens for trading liquidity and price discovery without flooding the market. Projects that unlock more than 30% of total supply at TGE often experience intense early sell pressure as multiple categories dump simultaneously. The exact safe amount depends on market conditions, but staying within 10-25% is the consensus guideline.

Should team tokens have any TGE unlock?

No. Team tokens should have 0% TGE unlock in virtually all cases. Any TGE unlock for team tokens signals to the market that insiders can sell immediately at launch, which destroys trust and raises the Insider TGE Unlock risk score. All four default templates in the tokenomics designer set team TGE unlock to 0%. The team’s financial return should come from vesting over years, not from day-one liquidity.

Why do liquidity tokens have 100% TGE unlock?

Liquidity tokens must be 100% unlocked at TGE because their purpose is to seed decentralized exchange pools from the first moment of trading. Without liquidity pool tokens available at launch, there would be no market for the token. These tokens are typically paired with a stablecoin or major asset in an AMM pool, and they cannot serve this function if they are locked or vesting. Liquidity allocations are usually 3-10% of total supply.

How does TGE unlock differ from cliff period?

TGE unlock and cliff period work on different timescales but interact closely. TGE unlock determines what is available at month 0, the instant the token launches. The cliff period determines when vesting begins, which is when additional tokens beyond the TGE unlock start releasing. A category can have both a TGE unlock and a cliff. For example, Private Sale with 10% TGE unlock and a 6-month cliff means investors get 10% of their allocation immediately, then nothing more until month 6 when vesting starts.

What happens if TGE circulating supply is too high?

High TGE circulating supply creates a large pool of immediately sellable tokens. If 40-50% of total supply is circulating at TGE, early sell pressure can crash the price before the project has time to build utility and user adoption. The TGE Circulating risk factor, weighted at 15% of the overall risk score, penalizes high TGE circulating percentages. Additionally, a high circulating supply at launch means the fully diluted valuation is closer to the market cap, leaving less room for supply-driven price appreciation.

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