At CARV, a total of 48,530,003 tokens are released from lock-up on Saturday, October 10, 2026. The largest block of them, 38,777,778 CARV, goes in one go at 20:42 UTC to the founding team, advisers, early investors and the private round. At Sunday morning’s price that is around $1.72 million. Over 24 hours, around $1.29 million in CARV was traded across all venues combined. The release of a single evening is therefore larger than a whole trading day, and it is this calculation that carries the date rather than the share of the maximum supply.
A token unlock is the moment at which contractually locked tokens of a project become transferable and can therefore be sold. For you as a holder, what counts is less how large the release is relative to the total supply than how much trading takes place at all that could absorb new units. At CARV that trading is thin, and on the two venues that settle in euros it is extremely thin.
CARV unlock on October 10, 2026: three releases in one day
The releases are spread across three points in the day. The tranches come from different pots of the vesting plan and therefore reach different groups of holders. What governs are the timestamps of the emission schedule, recalculated against DefiLlama’s public emissions data set.
| Time (UTC) | German time | Pot | CARV |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 02:00 | Nodes | 4,395,083 |
| 11:37 | 13:37 | Community | 5,357,143 |
| 20:42 | 22:42 | Founding team and advisers | 21,621,111 |
| 20:42 | 22:42 | Early investors | 9,043,333 |
| 20:42 | 22:42 | Private round | 8,113,333 |
| Total | 48,530,003 |
Why some calendars list October 11
Schedule overviews frequently bucket releases into whole days and in doing so push an evening slot onto the following day. For CARV, some calendars therefore show October 11. The timestamp of the emission schedule, however, falls on October 10 at 20:42 UTC, which in Germany is Saturday evening at 22:42. Anyone wanting to place an order beforehand has half a day less time than a calendar with a daily grid suggests.
The tranche at 22:42: 38.8 million CARV for the founding team, early investors and the private round
Vesting is the term for the staggered release of tokens that a project allocated to its team, advisers and capital providers at issuance. These groups received their units before the market launch, as a rule at a price far below today’s level or as compensation for work. The cost basis of these groups therefore differs fundamentally from that of a buyer who steps in on the exchange today.
The evening tranche consists of three such pots. With 21,621,111 CARV, the lion’s share falls to the founding team and advisers, joined by 9,043,333 CARV for early investors and 8,113,333 CARV for the private round. Together that is 38,777,778 units and around 80 percent of the day’s volume. The day’s two other releases, Nodes and Community, go to more widely spread groups of recipients and are considerably smaller at 9,752,226 CARV combined.
A community or nodes release is spread across many thousands of addresses that each receive small amounts. Some of it is sold, some stays put, and the selling pressure is distributed over days. An insider tranche, by contrast, lands in a few large wallets. Whether and when selling pressure arises from it hangs on a handful of decisions instead of thousands, and that makes the path after the date harder to assess.
Release volume against daily turnover: the yardstick that makes dilution tangible
Dilution describes the effect whereby new tokens enlarge the existing supply and the share of each individual unit in the project falls as a result. The usual figure, how many percent of the maximum supply is released, says little about trading. More informative is the comparison with turnover, because it shows how much demand is standing ready at all.
On Sunday morning, 24-hour turnover across all recorded venues stood at around $1.29 million. At about $1.72 million, the evening tranche is 1.33 times that figure, and the full day’s release, at around $2.16 million, is 1.67 times it. Even if only a fraction of the released units is sold, that fraction meets a market that moves considerably less on a normal day.
How to set up this calculation yourself for any token is written out step by step in our guide to recalculating token unlocks. You need only three values for it: the released number of units, the current price and the daily turnover.
Why CARV’s vesting falls precisely on October 10
The CARV token came to market on October 10, 2024. The project documentation sets a total supply of one billion tokens, which becomes accessible over four years from that launch day. October 10, 2026 is therefore the two-year cut-off date on which several pots release an annual tranche at the same time. The distribution by group is set out in the project’s tokenomics documentation: Nodes and Community together 50.000 percent, founding team and advisers 19.459 percent, Ecosystem and Treasury 9.000 percent, early investors 9.246 percent, private round 8.295 percent and liquidity 4.000 percent.
The emission schedule also shows how far the individual pots have already been emptied. Of the insider share held by the founding team and advisers, around 55.6 percent had been released before the date, and of the pot for the private capital rounds around 60.9 percent. Both groups therefore still have several annual tranches ahead of them, and the date in October 2026 is neither the first nor the last of its kind.
Circulating supply of 662.9 million CARV: 5.85 percent is added in one evening
The circulating supply is the number of tokens that are already freely tradable. At CARV it stood at 662,877,916 units out of one billion in total on Sunday morning. Measured against that, the evening tranche is 5.85 percent of the float and the full day’s release 7.32 percent. An increase on that scale within one day is no marginal event for a token of this size.
To place the size: the market capitalisation stood at around $29.4 million, the price at $0.0444 or just under €0.04, and in the ranking by market capitalisation CARV therefore sits beyond position 700. The price has gained a good 30 percent in 30 days, yet it remains around 96.7 percent below the peak of $1.36 from November 2024. The release thus meets a token that has risen recently rather than a price lying on the floor.
Where CARV is tradable in euros: Kraken and Bitvavo with thin books
The most practically important question for investors in Germany is where a position can actually be unwound again. CARV is listed on two venues that settle in euros and are supervised in the European Union, and on both the order books are very thinly populated.
- Kraken lists the pairs CARV/EUR and CARV/USD, both in the state “online”, with a minimum order size of 120 CARV. In the 24 hours to Sunday morning, CARV/EUR saw 9,764 tokens in 44 trades, worth around €380. The gap between bid and ask was about 0.6 percent.
- Bitvavo lists CARV/EUR in the state “trading”, with a minimum order of five euros. There, 57,505 tokens changed hands for around €2,263 over 24 hours. The buy side of the book held 2,258 tokens and the sell side 8,563.
Taken together that is about 67,000 CARV over 24 hours. On that arithmetic, the evening tranche of October 10 corresponds to what the two euro venues turn over together in more than 500 trading days. Anyone wanting to sell a larger position in euros moves the price on these venues with their own order.
The turnover takes place elsewhere: HTX accounted for around $638,000 over 24 hours, Upbit for around $193,000 in South Korean won and Bybit for around $87,000. Toobit, Bitunix, XT.com, MEXC, Gate and Bitget follow, each with less than $75,000 a day. Trading there requires an account outside the European authorisation framework, and that is precisely the point at which the question of the provider arises. Which platforms are authorised for German customers and what matters in a comparison is set out in our overview of regulated crypto exchanges.
MiCA authorisation and venue choice: the framework for investors in Germany
MiCA is the European regulation on markets in crypto-assets. The regulation requires trading venues and custodians to hold an authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider, which is granted in an EU member state and then applies across Europe. For you that means above all: an authorised provider is subject to requirements on own funds, segregation of client money and complaints procedures, while an unauthorised one is not. We have compiled the obligations the regulation places on companies and how long the transitional periods run on our page on the MiCA licence.
The status is best verified with the provider itself and in the public registers of the supervisor. For a token such as CARV, whose turnover takes place predominantly outside the EU, that leads to a trade-off: either the regulated venue with the thin book or the larger market without a European protective framework. A third possibility is self-custody, since CARV exists as a token on several networks, among them Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, Arbitrum and Solana. Self-custody does not solve the liquidity problem, however; it merely shifts it to the moment at which you do want to sell.
Holding period and exemption threshold: Section 23 of the Income Tax Act on a sale of CARV
If you sell before the date, the tax position in Germany is the same as for any other crypto asset held privately. What governs is Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act: a sale within a year of the purchase is a private disposal transaction, and the gain counts towards taxable income. Once a year has elapsed, the gain remains free of tax.
On top of that comes an exemption threshold: if the total gain from all private disposal transactions of a calendar year stays below €1,000, no tax is due. Once the mark is reached, the entire gain is taxable and not only the excess part. Anyone holding several tokens and selling in the same year therefore adds up across all sales. Properly documented purchase dates, quantities and prices are half the battle here; which tools automate that is shown by our comparison of crypto tax software and portfolio trackers. This section is no substitute for tax advice, and with larger amounts a visit to a specialist adviser is worthwhile.
What an unlock does not say about the price: bull and bear case side by side
A release is not a price event with a predetermined direction, and nobody can seriously predict how the market will react on October 10. Two readings stand side by side, and both have their merits.
The cautious case rests on the recipients’ cost basis. Anyone who received tokens for work or at an early price still realises a gain even at a price of four cents. If that willingness to sell meets an order book that moves less in a whole day than the tranche is worth, small sales suffice for large swings. The price has also risen a good 30 percent in 30 days, which tends to favour profit taking.
The relaxed case rests on the fact that release dates have been public in the emission schedule for years. Anyone trading professionally knows the date and has priced it in before the first token is moved. Moreover, not every released tranche makes its way to the market: some stays put in wallets, some goes into market-making contracts, some is tied up for the operation of the network. That can be observed by whether the released volumes actually flow to trading venues after the date.
The October unlock series: CARV compared with RAIN and Arbitrum
CARV is not the only token with an October date, and the comparison shows why the absolute sum on its own is of little use. Our analysis of October 3 puts the October release at the prediction-market token RAIN at more than $785 million, as set out in the analysis of the RAIN unlock and its dilution. That is a multiple of the CARV tranche, but it meets an incomparably larger market.
Conversely, Arbitrum stands for the case of the regular instalment: our analysis of September 30 names 92.6 million ARB that come free there month after month; the context for that is in the article on the end of the Arbitrum lock-up. A monthly recurring instalment distributes the pressure, while an annual lump such as CARV’s concentrates it into one evening. Anyone comparing several such dates therefore always calculates against the turnover of the token in question and never against the dollar sum of another.
The next date after October 10: November 9, 2026
After the cut-off date the plan continues on a monthly rhythm. On November 9, 2026 the next two releases follow: 4,395,083 CARV from the Nodes pot at 10:29 UTC and 5,357,143 CARV from the Community pot at 22:06 UTC. Together that is just under 9.8 million tokens and thus around a fifth of the October volume, because the large insider tranches do not come round again until October 2027.
For observation that means: the October date is the outlier of the year, and the months after it bring the smaller routine. Anyone following the development of the circulating supply sees early, from the ratio of turnover to release, whether the market in CARV is deepening or staying thin.
CARV unlock: How to proceed now
- Clarify venue and authorisation. Check which venue your CARV sits on and whether that provider is authorised for customers in Germany. The candidates with European authorisation are in our overview of regulated crypto exchanges.
- Look at market depth before the order. Open the order book of your venue and compare the size of your position with the amounts standing on the opposite side. With thin books a limit order is superior to a market order. Which platform offers which order types and fees is shown by the comparison of the best crypto exchanges.
- Calculate the tax position before the sale. Check the purchase date of every position and the gain to date in the calendar year before you trigger an order. For ongoing documentation, the tools from our comparison of crypto tax software help.
A look at the larger market helps with the context: how a thinly traded small-cap behaves next to a liquid market can be read well from the price development of bitcoin, where a single sale of this magnitude disappears into the noise.
(As of October 4, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)
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