Pyth Network, the decentralized oracle network, is under significant pressure just hours ahead of a major token unlock scheduled for Monday, May 19.
Pyth Network’s (PYTH) price has fallen 7% in the past 24 hours to $0.1449. The token has now declined over 21% in the past seven days and is trading 87.65% below its all-time high of $1.20. Despite the downturn, market activity has picked up.
PYTH’s 24-hour trading volume rose 45.3% to $38.5 million, and derivatives volume surged 58%, as per Coinglass data. A rise in open interest by 0.71% suggests that new positions are being added rather than closed, reflecting cautious positioning as traders anticipate volatility from the upcoming unlock.
According to Tokenomist data, roughly 2.13 billion PYTH tokens, worth approximately $313 million, are set to be unlocked on Monday, May 19. This represents a massive 58.62% of the circulating supply, with only 36% of total tokens unlocked so far. When so much supply is released at once, token unlocks frequently result in strong sell-side pressure, which may affect price movement if recipients decide to sell off tokens.
On the daily chart, PYTH is currently trending close to the lower band after dropping below its mid-Bollinger Band, which suggests that bearish pressure is rising. At 43.5, the relative strength index, which has been falling, suggests that the market is losing momentum but is not yet oversold.
Most indicators are displaying signals that range from neutral to negative. The moving average convergence divergence level is slightly negative, and momentum is likewise in sell territory. All major moving averages, from 10-day to 200-day, both simple and exponential, show sell signals, with the 10-day EMA now at $0.1616, well above the current price.
A move toward the lower support at $0.1134 is possible as PYTH has broken its immediate $0.1504 support. On the other hand, PYTH might stabilize and even rise if the market smoothly absorbs the $313M unlock with little selling from recipients.
A post-unlock recovery could be front-run by traders, particularly if the price falls toward important psychological support between $0.12 and $0.13. Historical unlocks on other tokens have sometimes marked local bottoms as uncertainty clears.
