FTX Unloads 3.03M Solana Worth $432.5M as Customer Repayment Gains Momentum

The defunct crypto exchange FTX has unstaked and unloaded millions of Solana into multiple wallets as customer repayment gains momentum.

Solana has corrected a staggering 17% in the past 24 hours, the largest among crypto assets in the top 7 ranking by market cap. Although this follows a broader market sideways trend, FTX’s on-chain activity may have contributed to this capitulation.

Data from the on-chain analytical firm Spot On Chain shows that the insolvent FTX unloaded a substantial amount of Solana late Monday. Specifically, an address FTX/Alameda leverages for staking activities has unlocked 3.03 million SOL ($432.5 million) and shifted them to multiple wallets.

Defunct Exchange Piles on to Solana’s Circulating Supply

Spot On Chain confirmed the recent transaction. The wallet unstaked the tokens and moved them to about 37 different addresses for a possible shift to exchanges Coinbase and Binance.

Further analysis shows that among the recipient wallets, address “CVjsf5” received the most SOL. FTX transferred 892,800 SOL, worth $127.8 million, to the wallet, which has a history of moving received Solana to the crypto exchange Coinbase.

Meanwhile, the recent on-chain activity follows the FTX bankruptcy estate’s disclosure that it would unlock 11.2 million SOL in March. The unlocked Solana was for companies that bought the asset at an auction after the US-based exchange’s November 2022 demise.

Notably, the bankruptcy estate would use proceeds from the sales to repay customers affected by its insolvency over two years ago. The exchange began repaying users under $50,000 in mid-February and has paid over $1.2 billion thus far.

FTX Unstakes 7.83M SOL ($986M) Since 2023

The Solana ecosystem was FTX’s business partner while it was operational, ensuring the exchange stacked large amounts of the token. Following its bankruptcy, the Sam Bankman-Fried-owned trading platform has taken to incessantly dumping SOL in its ploy of making creditors whole.

Spot On Chain highlighted that the exchange has unstaked 7.83 million SOL ($986 million) at an average price of $125.8 per coin. Notably, this substantial amount of Solana has ended up in exchanges like Coinbase and Binance.

FTX/Alameda Unstake HistoryMeanwhile, while SOL has responded negatively in the short term to these incessant unlocks, the asset has shown resilience. The sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap recently surged to an all-time high of $295 on January 19 amid a broader market bullish momentum.

In the meantime, Solana trades at $136.23, down 28% year-to-date.