FTX wallets unstake $160m in SOL, prompting price drop

Analysts at Lookonchain say a total sum of $160 million worth of SOL has been unstaked by FTX wallets recently.

Digital wallets tied to the defunct crypto exchange FTX have unstaked 3.9 million Solana (SOL), worth around $160 million. It transferred millions of dollars worth of SOL to centralized exchanges.

According to data from Lookonchain, FTX-linked wallets moved $30 million in SOL tokens to Binance and Kraken. After the news broke, SOL price plunged by 3% down to $40.4, according to CoinGecko.

Although it remains unclear who might be behind these transactions, reports indicate that Mike Novogratz’s investment firm Galaxy Digital might be related, given that it was appointed as a supervisor for liquidation of FTX’s assets. Crypto.news could not immediately confirm those suggestions.

A few days ago, on Nov. 3, 2023, FTX-linked wallets also sold a total of 1.1 million SOL (nearly $42.3 million at the time) and 7,183 ETH (around $13 million), analysts at Lookonchain added. It is unclear if the recent moves to Binance and Kraken were made with intentions to sell SOL tokens.

The on-chain movements come after Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was found guilty of all seven counts in the case of the FTX crypto exchange that collapsed in November 2022. His sentencing is set for March 28, 2024.

Criminal defense lawyers and financial brokers interviewed by Bloomberg suggest that Bankman-Fried’s allies Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh will also be sentenced. However, they will likely get little or no prison time.