Solana Surges to 14-Month High; Sell Pressure Lingers as FTX Unstakes $67M Tokens

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.

Read more: Sam Bankman-Fried Started Buying Solana's SOL at 20 Cents Using 'Alameda Profits,' He Says at His Trial

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.