$AZTEC TGE: Next Steps For Holders

The TL;DR: 

The $AZTEC token sale was conducted entirely onchain to maximize transparency and fair distribution. Next steps for holders are as follows:

1. Step 1: Create your Token Vault on the sale website. Your Token Vault will keep your tokens secure on Ethereum, keep them non-transferable until TGE, allow you to stake/delegate/participate in governance, and then withdraw them to your wallet after TGE.

1. Step 2: Staking and Earning Block Rewards. If you have more than 200,000 tokens, you can start staking today on the staking dashboard. 

1. Step 3: Token sale participants can vote for TGE as early as February 11th, 2026, at which 100% of tokens from the sale become transferable, and a Uniswap V4 pool goes live. 

The $AZTEC token sale has come to a close– the sale was conducted entirely onchain, and the power is now in your hands. Over 16.7k people participated, with 19,476 ETH raised. A huge thank you to our community and everyone who participated– you all really showed up for privacy. 50% of the capital committed has come from the community of users, testnet operators and creators!

Now that you have your tokens, what’s next? This guide walks you through the next steps leading up to TGE, showing you how to withdraw, stake, and vote with your tokens.

Step 1: Creating a Token Vault 

The $AZTEC sale was conducted onchain to ensure that you have control over your own tokens from day 1 (even before tokens become transferable at TGE). 

The team has no control over your tokens. You will be self-custodying them in a smart contract known as the Token Vault on the Ethereum mainnet ahead of TGE. 

Your Token Vault contract will: 

• Keep your tokens secure on the Ethereum mainnet.
• Ensure tokens remain non-transferable until TGE.
• Allows you to stake, delegate, and take part in governance.
• After TGE, you can withdraw your tokens to your wallet.

To create and withdraw your tokens to your Token Vault, simply go to the sale website and click on ‘Create Token Vault.’ Any unused ETH from your bids will be returned to your wallet in the process of creating your Token Vault. 

Step 2: Staking and Earning Block Rewards 

If you have 200,000+ tokens, you are eligible to start staking and earning block rewards today. 

You can stake by connecting your Token Vault to the staking dashboard, just select a provider to delegate your stake. Alternatively, you can run your own sequencer node.

If your Token Vault holds 200,000+ tokens, you must stake in order to withdraw your tokens after TGE. If your Token Vault holds less than 200,000 tokens, you can withdraw without any additional steps at TGE

Fractional staking for anyone with less than 200,000 tokens is not currently supported, but multiple external projects are already working to offer this in the future. 

Step 3: TGE 

TGE is triggered by an onchain governance vote, which can happen as early as February 11th, 2026. 

At TGE, 100% of tokens from the token sale will be transferable. Only token sale participants and genesis sequencers can participate in the TGE vote, and only tokens purchased in the sale will become transferrable. 

How does the voting process work? 

Community members discuss potential votes on the governance forum. If the community agrees, sequencers signal to start a vote with their block proposals. Once enough sequencers agree, the vote goes onchain for eligible token holders. 

Voting lasts 7 days, requires participation of at least 100,000,000 $AZTEC tokens, and passes if 2/3 vote yes.

What happens when the vote passes? 

Following a successful yes vote, anyone can execute the proposal after a 7-day execution delay, triggering TGE. 

At TGE, the following tokens will be 100% unlocked and available for trading: 

• All tokens in Token Vaults that belong to token sale participants.
• Accumulated block rewards for anyone staking.
• Uniswap V4 pool. This pool will have 273,000,000 $AZTEC tokens and a matching ETH amount at the final clearing price. 

Join us Thursday, December 11th at 3 pm UTC for the next Discord Town Hall–AMA style on next steps for token holders. Follow Aztec on X to stay up to date on the latest developments.