FTX Cold Wallets Move $19M in Solana, Ether to Crypto Exchanges

The debtor group in control of FTX assets has conducted various on-chain transactions in the past few weeks.

AccessTimeIconOct 26, 2023 at 8:46 a.m. UTC
Updated Oct 26, 2023 at 5:17 p.m. UTC

The debtor group controlling wallets linked to the cold storage of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX moved more than $19 million worth of assorted tokens to crypto exchange addresses on Thursday, blockchain data shows.

On-chain analytics firm Peckshield said some 470,000 SOL, worth $15 million at current prices, were moved to different wallets. “Some of these funds have been sent to CEXs like Binance,” the firm added, referring to centralized crypto exchanges.

An Ethereum-based FTX-linked wallet transferred $2.5 million worth of various tokens, including 11,000 COMP, to a Binance deposit address. Yet another transferred 1,395 ether (ETH), worth $2.5 million, to a Coinbase (COIN) address, Peckshield said.

On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant confirmed the wallet labels in a Telegram message to CoinDesk.

Cold storage refers to an offline wallet that is not connected to the internet, as opposed to a hot wallet, which is one held on a crypto exchange or online.

The debtor group in control of the wallets has made several transactions in the past few weeks. On Wednesday, an $8 million tranche of tokens was moved to Binance across several transactions.

Earlier in October, the group staked over $122 million of SOL and $30 million of ETH, a position on which it stands to earn at least $9 million worth of rewards yearly.

FTX collapsed after CoinDesk published revelations concerning the state of its balance sheet last year. New CEO John J. Ray III has excoriated financial controls at the company, and founder Sam Bankman-Fried is undergoing trial.

Edited by Sheldon Reback.

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Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.