FTX-Linked Wallet Unstakes $90 Million Solana, Sends It to Coinbase

On-chain data shows that a wallet address linked to FTX has been unstaking millions of dollars-worth of SOL and transferring it to crypto exchange Coinbase.

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX appears to be making moves with its massive stash of Solana’s native token SOL.

Blockchain transaction monitor Lookonchain identified a series of transactions on Monday, where a wallet address associated with FTX unstaked 1.5 million SOL worth $90 million and transferred it to another address.

That address then deposited 4.13 million SOL worth close to $250 million to crypto exchange Coinbase, presumably with the intention to sell. 

1/ FTX-related address “4Axqyo…HswTAh” unstaked 1.5M $SOL($90M) 2 hours ago and transferred it to “3vxheE…5mgkom”.

And we noticed that “3vxheE…5mgkom” deposited 4.13M $SOL($248.67M) to #Coinbase 11 hours ago. pic.twitter.com/pQRNDZCvgy

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 5, 2023

According to Lookonchain, the wallet that unstaked the SOL is likely connected to FTX based on a number of high value transfers it has received from a cold storage exchange wallet belonging to the crypto exchange.

Holders of SOL have been bracing for impact after FTX received court approval in September to sell $3.4 billion worth of its crypto holdings, of which $1.16 billion is made up of SOL. 

Despite the sell pressure from FTX presumably offloading these assets, the price of SOL has managed to stay afloat so far. Over the last two months, the price of SOL has risen from $20 to $60.

With Solana largely being associated with FTX, the blockchain itself was hit hard following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire. Some protocols lost 80% of the value locked into them as DeFi traders began exiting their positions en masse. 

However, things have taken a turn for the better of late, and the Solana ecosystem has recovered considerably. Data from DeFiLlama shows that the Total Value Locked (TVL) on the Solana blockchain has doubled over the last two months to $680 million at the time of writing.

TLDR:
Seeing Solana’s growth reinforced concepts: viable scalability roadmap, integrated architecture, local fee markets. Talking to teams showed unique use cases. Ecosystem survived FTX. Not perfect but closer to $270B than $35B FDV. Constantly questioning and being wrong is… https://t.co/Q0XItXm2sd

— Crypto Maxi (@cryptoMaxi420) December 4, 2023