A team token lock holds an allocation until one release date and returns all of it at once. Vesting releases the same allocation gradually, usually after a cliff. Choose a lock if the commitment is a single readable date; choose vesting if you want the release spread thin enough that no one day dominates the chart.
Vesting vs token lock: the decision table
| Dimension | Team token lock | Vesting |
|---|---|---|
| What it holds | Tokens from an allocation — team, treasury, advisors | The same kind of allocation |
| Release shape | One timestamp, whole balance | A cliff, then a drip over a defined period |
| What a buyer reads | A date and an amount | A schedule: cliff date, rate, end date |
| Sell pressure | Concentrated on one day | Spread across the schedule |
| Cost (as of August 2026) | $150 per token lock through Team Finance, plus gas in ETH | $100 per vesting use through Team Finance, plus gas in ETH |
| Fits | Short commitments, single milestones, small allocations | Multi-year team allocations, contributor grants |
| Common failure | Everyone watches the same date | A schedule so long or vague nobody reads it |
Neither is a liquidity lock, which holds a pool position rather than a token balance — projects often need both.
What each one holds
A team token lock places a balance of the token in a locker contract with a single release timestamp. Nothing comes out before it; everything comes out after. The state reads at a glance: amount, owner, date.
Vesting defines a curve over the same balance. A typical schedule has an unlock cliff — a first date before which nothing is claimable — then a linear release across months or years. Say a contributor is granted 1,000 tokens with a twelve-month cliff and twenty-four months of monthly release after it: nothing is claimable for a year, then a twenty-fourth of the grant each month. Those are illustrative figures, not a recommendation.
The mechanical difference is the shape of the release, and the shape is what buyers price.
What each signals to buyers
A lock says: this balance is not moving before this date. That is a strong signal for short, specific commitments — an allocation held through a launch window, a treasury tranche held until a milestone — because it is unambiguous and cheap to verify.
A schedule says something different: this balance is not moving quickly, ever. Vesting replaces the single-day event with a rate. For an allocation meant to align people over years, that is the closer match between the claim and what the contract enforces.
Both signals decay by arriving. Unlocks this week shows what releases across the chain in the near term, and expiring locks shows which locks are approaching their release date. Scheduled events are visible to everyone, which is the point of putting them on-chain.
As of —pending, —pending scheduled unlocks fall in the next seven days on Robinhood Chain, per Locksley's contract reads.
What neither one proves
Neither mechanism covers tokens outside its contract. A team can vest a headline allocation and hold an unvested balance in a second wallet, so the number that matters is the share of total supply under a schedule, not the existence of a schedule.
"No lock found" means we found none — not that none exists. Locksley does not yet index every locker.
Who should choose which
Choose a team token lock when the commitment is short and specific, when the allocation is small enough that one release will not dominate the pool, or when you want a single date you can point to and extend later.
Choose vesting when the allocation is large relative to circulating supply, when you are granting to contributors who join at different times, or when the promise is about years rather than a milestone. The design patterns are in vesting your team's tokens, and the cliff math is worked line by line in team vesting explained in plain English. You can set up a vesting schedule for $100 per use as of August 2026, plus gas in ETH — Team Finance is our sister product, so treat that as a dated price rather than a pitch.
Choose both when they cover different balances: vesting for the team allocation, a lock for a treasury tranche with a fixed purpose, and a liquidity lock for the pool itself. They are less alternatives than different tools for different balances.
Frequently asked questions
Is vesting the same as a token lock?
No. A token lock holds a balance until one release timestamp and then releases all of it. Vesting releases a balance gradually along a defined schedule, usually starting after a cliff date. Both are on-chain and readable, and both hold token balances rather than liquidity positions, which is a separate mechanism with a separate contract.
Can a vesting schedule be changed after it starts?
That depends on the contract the schedule was created with, so read the schedule's own terms rather than assuming. What matters from outside is that the current schedule — cliff date, rate and end date — is on-chain state you can check yourself, and that any change to it would also be an on-chain event with a timestamp.
“No lock found” means we found none, not that none exists: we do not index other lockers yet, and it is never a claim about the project.
Vesting your team's tokens
Team token vesting releases your allocation on a public schedule instead of all at once. Schedule patterns, what each signals to buyers, costs and what shows.
Read nextTeam vesting in plain English
What is team vesting? A contract releasing a team's tokens on dated stages, not all at once. Cliff arithmetic worked through, plus how to check a schedule.
See it liveWhat happens when a liquidity lock expires
What happens when a liquidity lock expires on Robinhood Chain: nothing automatic — the pool position simply becomes withdrawable by whoever owns it.
See it liveWhat happens when a liquidity lock expires
What happens when a liquidity lock expires on Robinhood Chain: nothing automatic — the pool position simply becomes withdrawable by whoever owns it.
Do itToken vesting on Robinhood Chain
Token vesting on Robinhood Chain releases team and investor supply on a schedule anyone can read on-chain. $100 per schedule as of August 2026, plus gas.
