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How to Read a Token Distribution (Vesting, Cliffs, and Float, With a Real Example)
A token distribution chart looks like a pie and reads like a contract, who gets the supply, when they can touch it, and how much actually exists on day one. Learn five terms and five reads and every distribution in crypto opens up, so this guide teaches them on a real published sheet, the MINT reward token's, because worked examples beat abstractions. By the end, cliffs, linear vesting, and float will be things you check in two minutes, not vocabulary that checks you.
The Vocabulary in Five Terms
- Allocation. Who a slice of supply belongs to, team, community, liquidity, marketing, each with its own rules.
- TGE, the token generation event. Day one, when the token starts existing, and the column that says how much of each allocation unlocks immediately.
- Cliff. A waiting period during which an allocation unlocks nothing at all, a 3 month cliff means ninety-plus days of zero.
- Linear vesting. After any cliff, the allocation drips out evenly over a stated period rather than arriving at once.
- Float. The share of total supply actually circulating at a given moment, the number that decides how much token exists to be bought and sold while the rest waits in schedules.
The Worked Example: MINT's Sheet, Read Aloud
MINT is the reward token of the Polkastarter marketplace, introduced August 2026 and explained in full here, and its published distribution makes a perfect classroom because every concept above appears in it:
- Total supply: 1 trillion tokens, priced in the sheet at $0.00001, a $10 million valuation on paper, plan figures, not a market.
- Early Adopters Airdrop, 30 percent, 300 billion tokens, and here is a cliff in the wild, 0 percent at TGE, a 3 month cliff, then linear vesting over 15 months, the largest slice unlocks slowest, an 18 month commitment story told in one row.
- Marketplace, 25 percent, 10 percent at TGE then 24 months linear. Liquidity, 25 percent, half at TGE, deployed as needed, liquidity allocations front-load because markets need inventory. Marketing, 15 percent and Foundation, 5 percent with its own 6 month cliff.
- Now compute the float, add every TGE column, 125B liquidity plus 25B marketplace plus 7.5B marketing, and 157.5 billion of 1 trillion exists at generation, a 15.75 percent float, meaning nearly 85 percent of all MINT arrives later, on the schedules above.
Two minutes of reading, and the design speaks plainly: the biggest slice belongs to early users and pays patience, the float starts small, and everything about it is checkable arithmetic, which is exactly what a published sheet is for.
The Five Reads for Any Distribution
The repeatable method, in the order that catches the most:
- 1. Find the float. Sum the TGE unlocks, small floats mean most supply arrives later, large floats mean the market meets the token all at once, neither is automatically good, both change what a price means.
- 2. Find the insiders' schedule. Team and investor allocations with long cliffs and vesting align them with the future, insider tokens fully unlocked at TGE are a question deserving an answer.
- 3. Find the community's share and its strings. A big community slice that vests, like MINT's, rewards staying, one that dumps at TGE rewards leaving.
- 4. Find the unlock calendar's cliffs-ending dates. Each cliff's end is a supply event, known in advance, that is the point of reading.
- 5. Find what is missing. No vesting stated, no allocation labels, no float math possible, an unreadable distribution is itself the finding, the same rule our bonus-terms guide applies to offers.
What the Reads Are Really Asking
One honest paragraph of altitude: a distribution is the token answering "who is this designed to reward, and when", and the reads translate the chart into that sentence. They do not predict prices, nothing does, and this guide scores nothing as an investment. What reading buys you is immunity to two specific mistakes, treating a small-float price as if all supply existed today, and being surprised by unlock dates that were published all along. In a market where most participants never read the sheet, two minutes of arithmetic is a genuine edge, and it costs nothing.
Nothing in this guide is financial advice, it is a reading lesson.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a token distribution?
The published breakdown of who receives a token's supply and on what schedule, allocations for community, team, liquidity, and operations, each with its own unlock rules. It reads like a contract, MINT's sheet for example shows 1 trillion total supply with 30 percent to early contributors vesting over 18 months from launch.
What is a vesting cliff?
A waiting period during which an allocation unlocks nothing, followed by its vesting schedule. MINT's early adopter allocation carries a 3 month cliff and then vests linearly over 15 months, meaning zero tokens for ninety-plus days and then an even drip, a structure that rewards staying rather than flipping.
What is float and why does it matter?
The share of total supply actually circulating at a moment, computed by summing the TGE unlocks and later vesting. MINT starts at 15.75 percent, 157.5 billion of a trillion. Float matters because prices describe the supply that exists, a small-float token has most of its supply still arriving on published schedules.
What are red flags in a token distribution?
Framed as questions, insider allocations fully unlocked at day one deserve an explanation, missing vesting schedules make float math impossible, and unlabeled allocations hide who benefits. An unreadable sheet is itself the answer, the same asterisk-first rule that applies to bonuses applies to distributions.
Is MINT's distribution good?
This guide scores reading, not investments. What the sheet says plainly is that the largest slice, 30 percent, belongs to early contributors on an 18 month patience schedule, the float starts at 15.75 percent, and every number is published arithmetic. MINT is earned by staking POLS on the marketplace and is not yet market-traded, what that is worth is a question markets answer later.
Where to Go From Here
Five terms, five reads, two minutes, and no pie chart will ever outread you again. The worked example's earning side is live, MINT accrues to POLS stakers on the Polkastarter marketplace, where every Lootbox shows its cards, values, and chances before you open, free mystery pack at signup.
The MINT figures come from its official published distribution as covered in August 2026, MINT is not yet market-traded and plan figures are not prices, distributions can be amended by their projects, and nothing here is financial or investment advice.
Sources
Iggy is a Web3 content strategist and writer with over 8 years of experience in the crypto space. She spent 4 years at TokenSuite, a leading Web3 marketing agency, where she produced content across 200+ projects including Biconomy and Natix Network, helping teams communicate complex blockchain concepts clearly and build engaged communities at scale.
Beyond agency work, Iggy has independently run content and marketing campaigns for projects like Oppi Wallet and Ta-da, covering everything from editorial and brand positioning to event coverage and video production. She brings genuine hands-on experience to everything she writes.