The newly appointed management at the defunct crypto exchange FTX appears to be considering the sale of its substantial Solana (SOL) holdings, as indicated by recent movements of tokens from their wallets. Solana’s co-founder has proposed a “win-win” solution in response.
Data shared on Twitter highlights that FTX’s cold storage wallets, as identified through the Solscan blockchain explorer, initiated the transfer of their SOL holdings yesterday. Collectively, these FTX wallets contain nearly 7 million SOL, equivalent to approximately $134 million at current market prices.
Last year, the Solana Foundation disclosed that it, along with Solana Labs, had sold a total of 58,086,686 SOL to FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, which is now valued at $1.1 billion. It remains unclear how much SOL the collapsed crypto exchange still held at the time of its bankruptcy filing in November.
Analysts, including crypto venture capitalist Adam Cochran, have speculated about these recent cold storage movements on social media. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko also weighed in, expressing his preference for distributing the SOL holdings directly to former FTX customers.
“My wish would be to distribute the SOL to all the FTX customers directly,” he stated. “It’s likely the least unfavorable outcome for everyone involved.”
He further elaborated that the distribution of SOL to 5 million users would be advantageous for the network in the long run. He believed that allowing users to take control of the assets and sell their portion through a Dutch auction would likely yield the most favorable results. He characterized this strategy as a “win-win” scenario.
Yakovenko and the Solana Foundation did not provide an immediate response to Decrypt’s request for comments, while FTX’s new management refrained from confirming any plans to sell the SOL.
Former FTX clients are eagerly awaiting the return of their assets following the exchange’s collapse last year.
Before its bankruptcy, the prominent digital asset platform FTX had strong connections with Solana, which ranks as the 10th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. FTX’s co-founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, had been a vocal supporter of Solana, and the company had established a marketplace for Solana NFTs while also making investments in various Solana-related projects.
FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 amidst allegations of criminal mismanagement. Prosecutors claim that approximately $8.7 billion in customer funds was misappropriated, and Bankman-Fried, following his arrest last year, faces 13 criminal charges.