Solana (SOL) continued its remarkable rally Wednesday and hit a 14-month high price, but sell pressure may soon hit the market as FTX unstaked another $65 million of tokens after moving millions of SOL to crypto exchanges over the past few days.
The seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose 17% over the past 24 hours, topping at $46, its highest since August 2022, before giving up some of its gains. The token widely outperformed the mostly range-bound crypto market, with the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), which tracks a basket of digital assets, up 0.6% over the past 24 hours.
Solana’s resurgence as one of the best-performing assets – up nearly 350% this year – has come as a surprise to many observers, defying concerns about its future after the collapse of Sam Bankman Fried’s FTX crypto exchange and Alameda Research, big investors in the Solana ecosystem.
Rising blockchain activity, a massive influx into SOL-focused digital asset funds and a recent tech upgrade helped the price recover, analysts said. Simultaneously, concerns about the FTX estate – now under bankruptcy protection – selling tokens en masse have proven so far to be overblown.
However, a recent uptick in activity of FTX-owned crypto wallets over the last few days suggest that some selling pressure could hit the market soon.
Digital asset manager 21Shares noted in a report that the FTX-Alameda bankruptcy estate has recently moved $35 million worth of SOL tokens to exchanges, possibly with the intention to sell.
Blockchain data shows that an FTX-related wallet Wednesday afternoon unstaked another 1.6 million of tokens, worth some $67 million, suggesting that more tokens could be on the move.
“This might exert some selling pressure in the coming weeks,” 21Shares analysts said.
