How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar

Three public numbers explain most of a token's supply risk: the share that trades today (the float), how far fully diluted value (FDV) sits above market cap, and when the next unlock arrives. Monad's October 7, 2026 numbers show all three: an 11.8 percent float, an FDV 8.5 times market cap and a November 24 cliff above half the float.

The supply numbers and the valuation gap

Tokenomist, a service that tracks unlocks, defines the pieces. Max supply is the most tokens that can ever exist. Total supply is what has been minted minus burns. Circulating supply is what trades today. Locked supply has not yet reached the market, and the float is the percentage of max supply already trading.

Market cap is price times circulating supply. FDV is price times a larger supply count that includes unreleased tokens. A wide gap between the two means much of the supply has not yet reached the market. Here is Monad on October 7, 2026.

Sites differ on the supply behind FDV. CoinGecko lists no maximum supply for Monad, so its FDV uses the 100.683 billion total supply. Tokenomist counts a 100 billion maximum and adds that block rewards put about 2 billion MON a year into circulation. FDV is therefore a guide to scale, not a ceiling. Bitcoin sits at the other extreme, with about 95.7 percent of its supply already circulating.

Unlocked is also not the same as trading. Tokenomist counts 49.4 billion MON as unlocked at launch but only 11.8 billion as trading, because the 38.5 billion ecosystem allocation is unlocked and not counted in the float. Two sites can both be right and still report different circulating figures, so compare at least two before you trust a ratio.

Dilution is simple arithmetic, as Tokenomist shows. If 700 tokens trade and you hold 100, you own one seventh of the float. When the supply doubles to 1,400, the same 100 tokens are one fourteenth. Your tokens stay the same, and they become a smaller share of everything that trades.

In our reading, a float of 11.8 percent means the market has priced a small slice of the token, and the other 88 percent has to find buyers as it unlocks. That is not a verdict on the project. It is a statement about how much supply is still to come.

Who holds the rest

Allocation tells you whose tokens are waiting. In our reading, a larger community share with long locks on insiders leaves less scheduled selling by holders with a near-zero cost basis. Compare Monad with Hyperliquid, which launched in 2024 with no private investor allocation.

The two designs differ in who sells when, and Monad's block rewards add a second source of supply. Two billion MON a year is about 2 percent of the 100 billion maximum.

Monad's investors and team hold 46.7 percent between them on long schedules. Hyperliquid's 38.9 percent reserve is, in Tokenomist's words, locked with no release date, and its 388.9 million locked HYPE exceeds the 222.4 million that circulates. Tokenomist calls that category released by decision, not by schedule.

Across 287 tokens it tracks, $25.7 billion unlocked between October 2025 and September 2026. Teams and private investors received $10.5 billion of it, or 41 percent, and Hyperliquid's team allocation supplied $4.8 billion of that.

The unlock calendar

Locked supply releases on published schedules. A cliff releases a large tranche on one date, and linear vesting releases a little each month. Monad's terms, from Tokenomist, show both shapes.

Monad's first cliff falls on November 24, 2026, one year after mainnet. Tokenomist counts 6.66 billion MON, about $182 million at its August 22 price, made up of 4.92 billion for investors, 750 million for the team and 988 million for the Category Labs treasury. That is 56 percent of the float. Roughly 1.24 billion MON then release each month through November 2029, which is about 10 percent of today's float every month.

A weekly digest is the fastest way to see which calendars are active. Tokenomist put scheduled cliff unlocks for October 5 to 11 at about $399 million, led by HYPE, ENA, APT, IO and BABY.

Check three things on any calendar. Find the date of the next cliff and its size against the float and daily volume. Find who receives it, insiders with a low cost basis or community programs. Then see whether a listing is scheduled close by, since unlocks and listings often cluster.

Schedules can change. On August 27 Ethena's foundation bought unvested tokens from 14 large early investors, according to Tokenomist, and folded 19 monthly investor releases into one cliff on October 5, 2026. That cliff was about 1.41 billion ENA, roughly $213 million at the announcement price and 14.3 percent of circulating supply. Monad's foundation offered to buy locked MON from investors at a discount, capped at $60 million, and nearly all declined.

An unlock also does not force a sale. Tokenomist reported that Hyperliquid's team unlock on October 6 was 3.75 million HYPE, worth $336.75 million, and that a co-founder said the team allocation was being sold over the counter to a single institutional buyer. The buyer, the price and any holding period were not disclosed. Our Hyperliquid tracker entry follows that story.

Airdrop math, done before the claim

An airdrop pool is a share of supply divided among everyone who qualifies. To estimate a value, take the community allocation, divide it by the number of eligible accounts, and multiply by a price range from comparable launches. Hyperliquid's 310 million HYPE were worth about $1.2 billion at the $3.90 launch price, The Block reported. Monad's Onchain Users track gives a smaller real case: 1.705 billion MON across 229,433 accounts is about 7,400 each, or roughly $190 at $0.02589.

Claim day adds a structural point. Hyperliquid's airdrop tokens were fully unlocked at the genesis event, and Monad's airdrop tokens were unlocked at launch. Recipients paid nothing and could sell at once, which means a recipient's cost basis is zero from the first minute. CoinGecko lists MON's all-time high at $0.04883, against $0.02589 on October 7, and many factors sit behind that gap. The unlock structure is one of them.

For points programs, the same arithmetic needs the total points issued. Divide the community allocation's value by total points to get a value per point, and bracket it low and high. If the project has not published either figure, the result is a guess, and the hours you put in should reflect that.

A five-minute checklist

Run these five checks in order and write the answers down. Doing the same for two tokens side by side makes the difference between them obvious. Monad supplies the example answers here, so you can see what each one looks like.

1. Float: circulating supply divided by max supply. Monad was at 11.8 percent, and under 15 percent means most supply is still ahead.
2. FDV gap: FDV divided by market cap. Monad was about 8.5. Check which supply figure the site uses.
3. Next cliff: date, size, share of float and recipients. Monad's was 6.66 billion MON on November 24, 56 percent of the float.
4. Allocation split: community against team and investors, with vesting terms. Monad gave 3.3 percent to its airdrop and 19.7 percent to investors.
5. Emissions: does the network mint new tokens as rewards? Monad's block rewards add about 2 billion MON a year.

Every input is public and free on tracker sites such as Tokenomist and on the project's own documents. Re-check before acting, because Ethena's rewrite shows a calendar can change. This guide explains how to read the numbers and is not advice to buy or sell.