Assessing what the steep decline in ApeCoin's Q3 FDV meant

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Oct 21

APE's fully diluted valuation fell to its lowest level ever in September
Q3's APE token unlock event was met with low demand, causing the value of the altcoin to decline

ApeCoin's [APE] fully diluted valuation (FDV) plummeted to its lowest level ever during the year's third quarter. This contributed to the Metaverse-based token closing the three-month period at an all-time low, according to Messari's latest report.

Read Apecoin [APE] Price Prediction 2023-24

A coin's FDV tracks its market capitalization if its total supply is in circulation. When a coin's FDV drops to its lowest, it means that based on the prevailing market price and the total supply of coins, the coin's overall value is at its minimum.

According to Messari, by mid-September, APE's FDV had fallen to $1.1 billion, with its average daily FDV dropping by over 50% within the 90-day period.

Source: Messari

APE's token unlock event and its impact

Between July and September, APE saw a 53% uptick in the amount of unlocked tokens than it did in the previous quarter. A total of 71.8 million APE tokens, equivalent to 13% of the circulating supply, were released.

Token unlock events can be bearish for an asset's price as they see the injection of previously frozen liquidity into the market. For crypto-assets with low traction, the hike in supply is not often met by a corresponding uptick in demand, resulting in downward pressure on the price.

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This was the case for APE, as the general decline in Metaverse-related activities that have marked the year has led to a drop in trading activity involving the altcoin.

Messari found that APE's token velocity – which measures the frequency of a token changing hands – recorded some depreciation too.

"Given that velocity measures how frequently a token changes hands, the decline in velocity indicates that users are trading and transferring the asset less frequently than in Q2," the on-chain data provider noted.

Source: Messari

Instead, the coin was deployed more towards governance activities during the quarter.

Interestingly, while APE's price and trading activity dropped during the period under consideration, it noted a 31% surge in the count of new wallets. According to Messari, the increase came in spite of the transfer volume falling by 49.6% and APE's price falling by 51%.