FTX moves millions in crypto to Binance – Cause for concern?
- More than $8 million in SOL was also moved to exchanges.
- Cryptos worth $13.5 million have already been dumped by the trading platform.
Cryptocurrencies worth millions of dollars were seen moving from the disgraced crypto exchange FTX [FTT] and its sister company Alameda Research to a Binance address, according to an on-chain analytics firm Nansen.
Sell-offs on the way?
Nearly $2.2 million in Chainlink [LINK], $1 million in Aave [AAVE], $2 million in MakerDao [MKR], and $3.4 million in Ethereum [ETH] made their way to a wallet labeled as 0xde9 initially. The funds were later transferred to a Binance address.
Although it cannot be said with conviction, Nansen stated that the purpose behind the move was to sell the assets off.
Additionally, more than $15 million worth of Solana [SOL] was moved out of FTX’s cold wallets in the last 24 hours, according to Lookonchain. Out of this, $8.1 million was transferred to exchanges, including $5.5 million to Binance.
The speculations of sell-offs were not unfounded as FTX was seen liquidating a sizable chunk of its holdings in the market. Lookonchain reported that cryptos worth $13.5 million have already been dumped by the trading platform.
FTX puts plan underway
These sell-offs were part of FTX’s broader plan to liquidate recovered crypto assets following its bankruptcy in November 2022. A court in September approved the plan, with an initial weekly limit of $100 million, which could be increased to $200 million subject to further orders.
Since then, market participants have been on tenterhooks over concerns of excess supply in the market. Such occurrences have the potential to add significant downward pressure on the market.
Solana stays put
Out of all the assets, SOL had the highest exposure to FTX. According to Lookonchain, FTX/Alameda held 1.62 billion in SOL, nearly 47%o f the total holdings.
Note that Solana was linked to FTX’s fortunes and the downfall of the exchange caused serious ramifications for the former. While not directly related to FTX, SOL was widely endorsed by the disgraced co-founder of the exchange Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).
Despite the fears, SOL didn’t look stressed as of press time. The seventh-largest crypto by market cap was valued at $32.18, up 1.12 % in the last 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap. The trading volumes also rose by more than 2% in the 24-hour period.