FTX bankruptcy administrators led by FTX CEO John J. Ray III have successfully sold a significant portion of their Solana (SOL) token holdings, raising approximately $1.9 billion for the FTX estate.
According to a Friday report by Bloomberg, this sale stemmed from the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and its sister firm, Alameda, in 2022. Between 25 million and 30 million locked-up SOL coins, priced at $64, were involved. This represents a substantial 63% discount from SOL’s prices at the time, which hovered around $172.
Notably, the sale, which sought to liquidate FTX estate’s sale of 41 million locked Solana worth roughly $7.2 billion, was announced earlier last month and drew attention from major industry players like Galaxy Trading and Pantera Capital.
Pantera Capital, a prominent crypto-focused asset manager boasting assets totalling $5.2 billion, capitalized on the opportunity to acquire heavily discounted Solana tokens. The firm initiated fundraising efforts from large investors for its Pantera Solana Fund, aiming to purchase up to $250 million worth of SOL tokens from the estate at a discount of 39%.
Similarly, Galaxy Trading also embarked on a fundraising campaign to secure a portion of the locked Solana tokens from the estate, raising $620 million.
Notably, Neptune Digital became the first entity to publicly reveal its acquisition of the locked Solana tokens from the FTX estate last month, obtaining 26,964 SOL at a 67% price discount. The firm disclosed that 20% of this acquisition will become accessible in March 2025, while the remaining portion will unlock incrementally on a monthly basis until 2028.
That said, the sale marks a significant milestone in the cryptocurrency industry, with the estate’s creditors standing to benefit from the substantial funds raised. It also comes just days after FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was handed down a 25-year jail sentence by a New York court for Fraud.
Meanwhile, Friday’s sale garnered a positive reception from the crypto community. SOL rebounded from losses earlier in the day when its price briefly dipped to $169. The cryptocurrency traded at $175.37 at press time, reflecting a 6.82% drop in the past 24 hours.
