Solana whales begin offloading SOL amid $200M staking unlock

Solana whales have offloaded their tokens to cash in on gains from a staking play that began four years ago. 

In April 2021, four whale addresses staked 1.79 million Solana (SOL) tokens, then worth about $37.7 million. The stake was unlocked on April 4, in what Arkham Intelligence called “the largest single-day unlock of staked SOL.” The firm noted that the next similar unlock is not expected until 2028.

At the time of the unlock, the tokens were valued at roughly $206 million, representing a 446% gain from the initial staking period.

Solana tokens scheduled to be unlocked on April 4. Source: Arkham

After the tokens were unlocked, the whales started to dump their holdings. Arkham data shows that over 420,000 SOL tokens, worth about $50 million, had been unstaked by the four Solana wallets at the time of writing. 

Following the unlock, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain said the whales had started offloading their funds. One wallet address dumped nearly 260,000 SOL tokens worth over $30 million. Three other wallets sold about $16 million in SOL. 

Arkham data shows that the four wallets still hold about 1.38 million SOL tokens worth roughly $160 million. 

The SOL unlock follows a significant decrease in SOL token prices since April 2. CoinGecko data shows that on April 2, SOL hit a high of $131.11. At the time of writing, Solana was trading at $114.66, a 12% decrease in two days. 

Solana token seven-day price chart. Source: CoinGecko

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The unstaking event by four whale wallets follows another large unlock, by bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its trading arm, Alameda Research. 

On March 4, FTX and Alameda wallets unstaked over 3 million Solana tokens worth about $431 million. The event was FTX’s largest SOL unlock since it started selling its tokens in November 2023. 

Data from the analysis platform Spot On Chain shows that since November 2023, the bankrupt crypto exchange has unstaked 7.83 million SOL tokens. The assets were sold for $986 million at an average price of $125.80 per SOL.

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