FTX bankruptcy estate liquidated 25-30M SOL tokens at $64 per coin in 2025 sale
The FTX bankruptcy estate sold between 25 million and 30 million locked Solana tokens at $64 each, raising between $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion, according to Bloomberg reporting on the transaction.[1][2] The price represented a significant discount to Solana’s market value at the time-approximately 63-64% below the prevailing rate of $172-$177 per token.[1][2] Major buyers in the sale included Galaxy Trading and Pantera Capital, both of which acquired the discounted tokens under a four-year vesting schedule that began unlocking tokens in scheduled tranches starting March 2025.[1][2]
The sale addressed the FTX estate’s inventory of approximately 41 million locked Solana tokens, valued at roughly $7.2-7.5 billion at announcement.[1][4] The discount pricing drew immediate criticism from FTX creditors, with some revealing during Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing that the estate had sold SOL holdings at discounts as steep as 70%, representing substantial value leakage from the bankruptcy recovery pool.[4]
Buyer Positioning and Initial Market Reception
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Neptune Digital publicly disclosed acquiring 26,964 SOL tokens at the $64 price point, representing a 67% discount to market value at the time of purchase.[4] The firm structured its holdings for gradual release, with 20% of tokens scheduled for March 2025 and the remainder distributed through January 2028.[4] Pantera Capital, managing $5.2 billion in assets, separately raised capital through its Pantera Solana Fund specifically to purchase up to $250 million worth of SOL tokens at a 39% discount.[2]
Initial market response to the sale announcement proved mixed. On the day Bloomberg reported the transaction, Solana rebounded from intraday lows near $169, trading at $175.37 at press time.[2] However, SOL experienced a 6.82% decline over the preceding 24-hour period.[2]
Vesting Unlock and Supply Pressure
The scheduled vesting release created significant market dynamics beginning March 1, 2025, when approximately 11 million SOL tokens from the FTX estate-representing roughly 20% of Solana’s 488 million circulating supply-unlocked simultaneously.[5] The release, valued at approximately $2 billion based on prices at the time, immediately introduced substantial selling pressure into the market.[5]
Trading volume in Solana spiked to $9.9 billion across a 24-hour period following the unlock.[5] On-chain liquidity on decentralized exchanges like Raydium thinned as institutional and retail sellers moved to realize gains accumulated since the $64 purchase price, with panic selling outpacing incoming bids.[5] The unlock stems largely from buyers who acquired tokens at the $64 estate price, generating substantial unrealized gains even as broader market conditions deteriorated.[5]
Creditor Concerns and Valuation Disputes
Multiple FTX creditors filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the valuation methodology applied to the estate’s SOL holdings during the auction process.[4] The steep discount to market prices raised questions about whether the bankruptcy administrators had adequately maximized recovery for creditors or prematurely capitulated to buyer demand.
During Bankman-Fried’s sentencing proceedings, creditor Sunil Kavuri highlighted the 70% discount explicitly, placing the sale pricing in sharp relief against prevailing market values and suggesting institutional buyers had captured significant arbitrage opportunity at creditor expense.[4]
Market Impact and Ongoing Liquidation Risk
The combination of discounted acquisition pricing and subsequent vesting unlocks created a two-stage supply shock. Initial buyers who acquired tokens at $64 entered a market where they could realize substantial profits by March 2025, yet broader market weakness likely constrained their ability to execute liquidation at premium levels. The unlocking schedule through 2028 means additional tranches remain scheduled for release, prolonging the potential for incremental supply pressure.
Traders expressed skepticism regarding whether over-the-counter (OTC) transaction structures would genuinely contain market impact or merely defer it to secondary markets.[5] OTC purchases by institutional players remain susceptible to downstream liquidation when vesting windows align with redemption pressures or capital needs, creating timing mismatches between buyer intentions and actual market behavior.
The FTX estate’s Solana liquidation demonstrates the practical tensions between bankruptcy recovery efficiency and market microstructure stability. Discounted pricing accelerated creditor distributions but transferred volatility risk to buyer portfolios and ultimately to broader market participants absorbing incremental supply.
[1] https://unchainedcrypto.com/ftx-estate-sells-off-up-to-1-9-billion-of-solana-at-deep-discount-report/
[2] https://zycrypto.com/ftx-bankruptcy-estate-sells-locked-solana-tokens-worth-1-9-billion-at-huge-discount-of-64-per-sol/
[4] https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/ftx-bankruptcy-estate-to-sell-41-million-solana-tokens-for-dollar75-billion
[5] https://www.tekedia.com/solana-bleeds-as-11m-sol-unlocks-from-ftx-estates/
