Aptos (APT) tokens surged as much as 15% on Wednesday after the network announced a partnership with Microsoft (MSFT). The surge came ahead of a supply unlock that could add selling pressure, data suggests.
The unlock, which is part of a planned move, will decrease locked tokens to 80% of the total supply. This could cause prices to plunge quickly if holders choose to sell and demand fails to keep up.
The Aptos Labs blockchain, started by former Meta Inc. employees, said it was expanding its tools and services using Microsoft’s artificial intelligence technology. This includes a chatbot called Aptos Assistant and AI tools for smart contract programming.
At the time of writing, APT was up over 9% at $7.31.
The Aptos tokenomics have been criticized by the crypto community for allocating almost half of the 1 billion tokens issued to core contributors, investors, and the Aptos Foundation. This is in contrast to Ethereum, which allocated just 9.9% of ether (ETH) supply to the founding team and another 9.9% to the Ethereum Foundation during its 2015 issuance.