FTX Sells $1.9 Billion Worth of Solana Tokens in Extensive Liquidation, What Lies Ahead for SOL Price?
According to a report from Bloomberg, the recent massive sell-off of Solana by the bankrupt FTX exchange has had a significant impact on the crypto market. FTX sold over half of its SOL tokens at a 63% discount from the current market prices, resulting in nearly $2 billion for FTX creditors.
Galaxy Trading, Pantera Capital, and Neptune Digital Assets were the main buyers of FTX’s stake in SOL, indicating strong interest from asset managers and venture capitalists. Galaxy Trading raised $620 million for SOL tokens, Pantera Capital raised $250 million, and Neptune Digital Assets bought 26,964 SOL tokens at $64 each.
The sale of between 25 million and 30 million locked-up SOL coins at $64 per token by FTX has raised concerns among creditors, especially considering SOL’s current trading price of $176. Critics have accused FTX’s liquidators of violating creditors’ property rights, particularly due to the significant discounts at which the assets were sold.
Although FTX sold a large portion of its SOL tokens for $1.9 billion, they will be locked for four years. The company claims that this move is to repay creditors, but it has received negative feedback from those affected by the exchange’s collapse. Sunil Kavuri, a victim of the collapse, criticized the sale, stating that it “destroyed billions of value for FTX creditors.”
Recent on-chain data reveals significant cryptocurrency transfers from addresses associated with FTX and Alameda to centralized exchanges, totaling approximately $15 million. These transactions include notable transfers such as 1,000 ETH to Coinbase, 1,000 Wrapped Ether (WETH) to Wintermute, and 3,544 Wrapped Binance Coin (WBNB) to Binance.
During the same period, addresses linked to the failed exchange moved around $105.9 million worth of 19 different altcoins to intermediary wallets, followed by approximately $16 million in 13 different assets deposited to centralized exchanges. The dominant transactions involved GateChain’s 3.17 million GT tokens, valued at about $31.3 million, alongside significant transfers of LEO and VIC tokens, among others.
Furthermore, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison on fraud charges related to the exchange’s collapse in November 2022. Creditors have filed a class action against Sullivan and Cromwell, alleging their involvement in the fraud before representing FTX during bankruptcy proceedings.