Wallets linked to bankrupt-FTX move $SOL worth $13.5m

Addresses connected to the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX have moved multi-million dollar worth of Solana’s native token $SOL in some eight hours, as per on-chain data.

Flagged by PeckShield, these wallets have taken out 250,000 $SOL, which is worth just over $13.5million at press time, and $4m in $USDT stablecoins.

The funds have been transferred to crypto exchange Binance and trading firm Wintermute. This happened as $SOL took a breather in its almost 150% monthly price rally.

The token is now down by almost 7% daily, changing hands for $54.45 at the time of writing. However, it is still up by over 32% weekly, maintaining its trade in the green.

The FTX Debtors, a group that is currently overseeing the bankruptcy process of the collapsed crypto exchange and its multi-billion dollar asset holdings, are the ones who control these wallets in question. Analysts are of the opinion that the recent movements of the funds to exchanges likely indicate a plan to sell the tokens on open market.

However, this is not the first time that such a move has been observed. Just last week, FTX estate moved 750,000 in $SOL, worth about $30m, to crypto exchanges Binance and Kraken. This also hinted at a possible sale, which drove the token’s price down by over 5% in 24 hours.

Nonetheless, the prices soon recovered and rallied later on. Recently, Solana has been a recipient of bullish sentiments, which pushed its price in a continued rally, lasting for over a month.

Another factor that aided the token’s uptrend has been the recent bullish report published by asset management company VanEck that forecasted $SOL to touch $3K by 2030. Its diverse valuation scenarios for Solana’s price ranged from a conservative $9.81 to an ambitious $3,211.28 by 2030. The price target for Ethereum ($ETH), in comparison, was set at $11,800.

The prediction came on the back of a potential scenario where the asset manager anticipated Solana becoming the first blockchain to accommodate applications with over 100 million users.

What the debtor group plans for FTX’s stake, which was acquired by the Sam Bankman-Fried led exchange from 2020 to 2022, is quite unsure. The chunk is estimated to be worth over $1billion.

Last month, the debtors floated a new amended proposal which talked about the return of an estimated 90% of customer funds. They had suggested dividing missing customer assets into three pools: Assets segregated for FTX.com customers; Assets for FTX.US customers; and a ‘General Pool’ of other assets.

Customers of the two exchanges would also benefit from a ‘Shortfall Claim’ against the General Pool corresponding to the estimated value of assets missing at their exchange. This claim is estimated to be approximately $8.9bn for FTX.com and $166m for FTX US.

The preference settlement is set at 15% of customer withdrawals on the exchange, nine days before the exchange went bankrupt. Customers with a preference settlement amount of less than $250,000 can accept the settlement without any reduction of claim or payment. However, if they had withdrawn over $250,000 from the exchange, they would have their claim reduced by 15% of the amount.

The FTX Debtors also anticipated that customers of both exchanges will not be paid in full, wherein, a greater percentage of losses will be faced by customers of FTX.com. The proposal is subject to the approval by the US Bankruptcy Court by the end of the second quarter of 2024 and the group plans to file the plan by 16 December 2023 for the court’s perusal.