Ontology’s (ONT) Token Distribution and Lock Periods

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OntologyNetwork

5 min readMar 12, 2018

Ontology’s (ONT) circulating supply amount of 87.6249524% (876,249,524 ONT) refers to all ONT without lock periods (ONT that can be transferred, but not necessarily ONT that can be traded at the moment). For example, the community portion is unlocked ready for distribution in community events.

We will continue to update information in this same article.

Newly updated on Feb 27, 2023

We have updated all figures in alignment with the exact unlocked amount except for the Ontology Core team remains unchanged.

Below are ONT’s distribution proportions with the unlocked amounts in brackets:

Ontology Community: 12% (unlocked 12%)

Giving back to the community is important for Ontology. This portion will be given back to the community through various events for different scenarios within Ontology.

All parts of this portion have been already been used in past airdrops, online and offline events over time.

Co-Builders (institutional partners): 28% (unlocked 28%)

Ontology is a platform closely related to real-world institutions and businesses which will continue to be important supporters of the ecosystem throughout its growth.

A certain amount will be unlocked each half-year and all institutional co-builders will strictly follow two-year unlock rules without exception. Ontology will screen its co-builders and control the proportion strictly; even for the most important co-builders, the proportion is only 1–2%. For many co-builders, their allocation is less than 1%. Each co-builder has its own contract and signs an NDA.

All parts of this portion have been unlocked over the past four years and still some remaining amounts to be distributed.

Update history:
September 26th, 2018: The second round of the co-builder evaluation has been completed and 5% of this portion was unlocked and will be distributed within a month.
December 17th, 2018: According to proportional unlocking every six months, the unlocked amount was updated to 14%.
January 13th, 2020: We made an announcement on the Telegram announcement channel that based on the 2019 Ontology’s co-builder evaluation, the Ontology Foundation has decided to unlock a total of 9,770,000 ONT incentives for outstanding co-builders. The incentives will be distributed in March 2020.
September 25th, 2020: The recent Ontology’s co-builder evaluation by the Ontology Foundation has seen strong supports from our ecosystem partners: Accomplice, Fosun Group, Tembusu Partner, and Fenbushi Capital, the Ontology Foundation has decided to unlock a total of 13,888,888 ONT incentives for outstanding co-builders. The incentive will be distributed in batches before September 30, 2020. Again, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our ecosystem partners for their continuous support dedicatd towards the Ontology trust ecosystem and we look forward to working hand in hand to achieve a brighter future.
October 8th, 2020: Our recent co-builder evaluation by the Ontology Foundation has seen incredible support from our ecosystem partners including: Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, IDG Capital, Frees Fund and Milestone Venture Capital. As a result, they have decided to unlock a total of 14,791,663 ONT as incentives to be distributed in batches before October 30th, 2020 for all the outstanding co-builders.
November 8th, 2020: 2,777,777 ONT has been unlocked as incentives for our ecosystem partners’ great support.
December 3rd, 2020: 6,111,109 ONT has been unlocked as incentives for our ecosystem partners’ great support.
May 13th, 2021: 17,077,746 ONT in total has been unlocked by this date as incentives for our ecosystem partners’ great support.
July 22nd, 2021: 12,927,772 ONT in total has been unlocked by this date as incentives for our ecosystem partners’ great support
July 15th, 2022: 1,000,000 ONT in total has been unlocked by this date as incentives for our ecosystem partners’ great support

NEO Council: 10% (unlocked 10%)

NEO is an important technology and ecosystem partner of Ontology, therefore Ontology will give a portion of the tokens to the NEO Council for relevant cooperation and support NEO community feedback. Around 2% of this portion has already been used in a two-part airdrop for NEO holders.

Update History:
By November 25th, 2020, Ontology has unlocked all tokens for the NEO Council.

Ontology Ecosystem Development: 25% (unlocked 25%)

Ontology will use this portion of the tokens to continue to build various application services, promote the ecosystem, and secure strategic cooperation for expanding Ontology’s coverage and adoption.

Ontology Technical Community Reward: 10% (unlocked 10%)

Technology is a core resource of Ontology, therefore 10% of tokens will be reserved to reward the technical community for their feedback and contributions.

Ontology Core Team: 15% (unlocked 15%)

Ontology is a huge ecosystem with a growing mature development team. This portion provides a long-term incentive for the team with yearly lock periods.

The remaining unlocked amount will be unlocked over the next four years. Ontology has one of the longest lock periods for its core team, showing the confidence the team has in the long-term development of the project. The majority of the unlocked team amount has not yet been distributed.

Update history:
June 3rd, 2019: The unlocked amount for the Ontology core team was updated to 7.5%.
July 24th, 2019: The Ontology core team announced the entire amount of unlocked ONT in 2019, or 37,500,000 ONT in total, is staked into the Triones consensus nodes, thus reducing the circulating supply.
April 17th, 2020: This May, Ontology will unlock another 3.75% of the Core Team tokens and allocate them all for staking activities. The unlocked amount will not be released to the market. The Ontology Foundation has a strong faith in the future development of Ontology and will continue its responsibility to maintain a sustainable, healthy and stable ecosystem development.
May 19th, 2020: As planned, Ontology has unlocked another 3.75% of the Core Team tokens and allocate them all for staking activities. The Ontology Foundation will not be receiving any staking rewards for the 3.75% of the Core Team tokens staked. This action will not affect the current staking returns for stakers. We will continue to maintain a sustainable, healthy and stable ecosystem development.
May 20th, 2021: As planned, Ontology has unlocked another 3.75% of the Core Team tokens.

About Ontology (ONT)

Ontology uses a dual token (ONT and ONG) model. ONT is a coin and can be used for staking in consensus, whereas ONG is a utility token used for on-chain services. ONT releases ONG periodically.

Ontology Token (also ONT) is a NEP-5 token that was used temporarily before the Ontology MainNet. Now the Ontology MainNet has been released, all NEP-5 ONT is currently undergoing token swap to the native ONT coin.