Token Vesting

Token vesting is a schedule that releases a team member's, investor's or advisor's allocation gradually instead of all at once. A common arrangement begins with a cliff, a period during which nothing at all is released, followed by linear release over months or years, often enforced by a smart contract that only lets the beneficiary withdraw the portion that has matured. The purpose is to align insiders with a project's long-term progress and to limit immediate selling pressure after launch. When reading tokenomics, look at the size of insider allocations, the length of the cliff and whether vesting is contract-enforced or merely promised in a document, since off-chain commitments can be changed without leaving any on-chain trace.