The Next Chapter Begins for W

Today, Wormhole is announcing the next major chapter for the token with the release of upgraded W 2.0 Tokenomics, enhancing the W token with the Wormhole Reserve, 4% targeted base yield on W, and an Unlock Optimization replacing annual cliffs with bi-weekly unlocks. This milestone represents a significant evolution in how Wormhole aligns incentives, distributes value, and empowers the people who help the ecosystem of Wormhole users, Integrators, and Contributors win.

Since inception almost 5 years ago in October 2020, Wormhole has been powered not only by code, but also by its community of integrators, validators, stakers, users and partners. Together, these parties have enabled the vision of a truly connected internet economy powered by the Wormhole platform and the W token.

As previously outlined, the current and future market opportunity for Wormhole is immense. Governments, institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and corporations are all launching onchain products that need distribution across blockchains. Hundreds of public and private chains are now operational, with thousands of new chains and tokenized assets coming onchain in the very near future.

As the lines between traditional and crypto rails converge, Wormhole is uniquely positioned to capture the majority of value and data transfer that will flow throughout the internet economy. Wormhole is the infrastructure connecting every person, institution, app, asset, and network, all of which drive growth and accrue value back into the Wormhole ecosystem.

What is W?

The W token is Wormhole’s native multichain asset, designed to power governance, staking, and ecosystem growth across more than 40 blockchains. With a capped supply of 10 billion, W enables participation in Wormhole Governance, aligns incentives for network security through staking, and supports long-term ecosystem development. By anchoring value and decision-making in the community, W serves as the foundation for Wormhole’s mission to connect the internet economy.

Learn more about W token and explore the W launch details.

W Token Details

• Ticker: W
• Maximum Supply: 10,000,000,000
• Current circulating supply: ~4,763,395,812 (~46.63%)
• Token Format: Native ERC-20 and Solana SPL (using Wormhole’s NTT (Native Token Transfers) standard)
• Original tokenomics overview: link

In April 2024, W was distributed across these six categories:

Wormhole 2.0 - September 2025

The Wormhole Reserve

Wormhole Contributors are excited to announce their commitment to the longevity of the Wormhole protocol and W holders with the Wormhole Reserve, coming soon. Upon launch, this will be a strategic reserve of W where onchain and offchain protocol value will accumulate to support the growth of the Wormhole ecosystem.

• Protocol Value and Revenue Accumulation: Wormhole will channel onchain and offchain protocol revenues and value generated across Wormhole, Wormhole Portal, and ecosystem applications into W, with proceeds contributing to the Wormhole Reserve.

• Direct Alignment with Growth: As Wormhole adoption increases, W will accrue value through network expansions, Portal fees, ecosystem applications, and other mechanisms, ensuring that growth directly supports the Wormhole ecosystem. This will result in a growing portion of W to be locked away in the Wormhole Reserve.

4% Base Yield - Stake for Governance

Wormhole 2.0 will redefine yield. W holders that continue to contribute to governance will soon begin to receive more regular yield. While staking is a variable reward, holders will be able to receive higher rewards by being active users of ecosystem applications. Yield will come from a combination of the existing token supply and protocol revenues. There is no inflation being introduced to W. The total supply remains capped at 10 billion tokens.

• Portal Earn will allow you to accrue points that will boost staking yield by using Wormhole’s flagship application, Portal.

• Future protocol revenue ensures that as Wormhole grows, W token holders grow with it.

Please note: Rewards are variable, not guaranteed, and may change or stop at any time. They are emissions, not interest, and confer no rights to revenues or payments. Portal Earn points adjust parameters are not cash or tokens and have no monetary value.

Unlock Optimization

The W token distribution schedule set in the early days of Wormhole (~2021) was designed at a time when annual cliff unlocks were a common industry standard. However, since then, industry tokenomics best practices have evolved. Wormhole is now adopting a modernized distribution schedule designed to maximize stability, strengthen long-term alignment, and provide greater confidence for token holders.

Elimination of concentrated annual W market pressure: By replacing large, annual cliffs with bi-weekly unlocks beginning October 3, 2025, W now follows a smoother, more predictable release schedule. This transition eliminates moments of concentrated market pressure and instead creates a steady, linear unlock cadence. The result is stronger market resilience, improved alignment for contributors and investors, and a healthier overall environment

Extended lock schedule: Wormhole contributors are ensuring that investors and Guardian validators are aligned with the protocol for an additional 6 months until October 2028. Although Core Contributor tokens will unlock to the WF on a bi-weekly basis, all agreements with these entities will remain on the original annual unlock schedule.

The following categories are shifting from annual cliffs to a bi-weekly unlock schedule over 4.5 years:

• Guardian Nodes (5.1%)
• Community & Launch (17%)
• Ecosystem & Incubation (31%)
• Strategic Network Participants (11.6%)

Foundation Treasury – No Change

• The Foundation Treasury (23.3%) continues to follow its original daily 4-year schedule.

Core Contributors – No Change

• Core Contributor allocations (12%) are a special case. While tokens technically now unlock to the Wormhole Foundation on a bi-weekly basis to essentially be held in escrow, all legal agreements maintain the original annual unlock schedule. This means that contributor tokens remain time-locked under contractual safeguards.

The updated token release schedule is as follows:

W Powering the Internet Economy Across Chains

Wormhole is connecting the internet economy, and W is the foundational token powering this future. The goal of Wormhole Contributors is to significantly expand the asset transfer and messaging volume that Wormhole facilitates over the next 1-2 years. The long-term vision is to become the de facto rails of the internet economy for all traditional and crypto-native capital markets globally.

To accomplish this, Wormhole Contributors will focus on continuing to build excellent user-facing products such as Portal, advancing Wormhole’s competitive edge in smart contract products such as NTT, Settlement, and Queries, and continuing to grow the number of institutional-grade assets that choose to leverage the unique product and security advantages that Wormhole offers.

The future is bright for the new internet economy, and Wormhole and W are positioned to be at the center powering it all.