Filecoin is nearing the end of a six-year token vesting schedule releasing FIL to Protocol Labs and the Filecoin Foundation since 2020. The scheduled releases will stop in mid-October 2026. Based on recent mining activity, annual additions from vesting and block rewards could fall by about 75%.
Filecoin’s Six-Year Vesting Schedule Ends in October
Filecoin launched its mainnet on October 15, 2020. Its original token plan assigned 300 million FIL to Protocol Labs, including team members and contributors, and 100 million FIL to the Filecoin Foundation. Both allocations followed a six-year schedule, which gradually made tokens available rather than all at launch.
The two allocations together account for around 66.7 million FIL in yearly releases. Filecoin’s Lotus accounting code adds 9.8 million FIL to the same six-year category. That puts annual releases ending this month at about 68.3 million FIL. Filecoin's 2026 strategy said the “final network vesting periods will end” this year. Code-based calculations put completion on October 14, while other reports cite October 15.
Annual FIL Additions Could Decline by 77%
The Defiant reported that Filecoin produced around 56,449 FIL in 24 hours, citing data from Filfox. At that rate, annual block rewards would reach approximately 20.6 million FIL. However, actual rewards vary depending on network conditions.
Adding the expiring vesting releases brings annualized issuance to roughly 88.9 million FIL. Removing them would reduce that figure to 20.6 million FIL, representing a decline of around 77%. With Filecoin's reported circulating supply at 919.9 million FIL, the annualized issuance rate would decrease from approximately 9.7% to 2.2%. These figures measure gross token additions rather than net supply changes or actual market sales.
Storage Providers Will Continue Earning FIL
Filecoin uses block rewards to pay storage providers that support its decentralized data storage network. Its reward system combines time-based issuance with an additional component tied to network storage performance. The end of the original allocation schedule does not end those payments or change their existing vesting rules.
Under those rules, storage providers can access 25% of earned block rewards immediately. The remaining 75% becomes available gradually over 180 days. Filecoin also burns some tokens through network fees and requires providers to lock FIL as collateral. Those processes affect the amount of FIL available for circulation, so a decline in scheduled releases does not guarantee an equal decline in circulating supply.
FIL Price Declines Ahead of Vesting Deadline
Filecoin traded near USD 1.10, recording a 2.29% decline over 24 hours. Trading volume dropped 46.83%, while FIL remained below the USD 1.13 daily pivot level. Despite the daily decline, the cryptocurrency recorded a 39.68% increase over the previous 30 days.
FIL faces immediate resistance at USD 1.13, followed by USD 1.22. On the downside, USD 0.997 serves as a key support level, while USD 0.87 marks another potential support area. Meanwhile, the approaching vesting deadline will reduce scheduled token releases, although the change does not require holders to sell previously unlocked FIL or determine the cryptocurrency's future price direction.
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