Wintermute withdraws $38M SOL from Binance ahead of $2B Solana unlock

From cointelegraph by Zoltan Vardai

Wintermute withdrew nearly $40 million worth of Solana from Binance in the past 24 hours, over a week ahead of the largest Solana token unlock in the project’s history.

Crypto market maker Wintermute withdrew over $38.2 million worth of Solana SOL$156.67from the Binance exchange in the 24 hours leading up to 9:02 am UTC on Feb. 24, Arkham Intelligence data shows.

  Wintermute transfers from Binance hot wallet. Source: Arkham Intelligence

The transfers occurred days ahead of  Solana’s $2 billion token unlock , which is set to release over 11.2 million SOL tokens into circulation on March 1.

Solana’s price fell by over 7.5% in the past 24 hours to an over three-month low of $155, last seen at the beginning of November 2024, Cointelegraph Markets  Pro  data shows.

SOL/USD, 1-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph

Some crypto industry watchers are concerned that the token unlock may introduce significant selling pressure for Solana, since a significant portion of the locked supply was purchased at FTX auctions at a discount compared to today’s price.

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Solana risks significant selling pressure from VCs

Solana’s upcoming token unlock may add significant selling pressure for the cryptocurrency.

Crypto analyst Artchick.eth noted that over the next three months, more than 15 million SOL — worth roughly $2.5 billion — will enter circulation. Many of these tokens were purchased at $64 per SOL in FTX’s auctions by firms like Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital and Figure:

“The majority of this SOL was purchased from FTX auctions at $64 by Galaxy, still a very healthy profit. By the time this SOL unlocks, another ~$1B of SOL will be produced via inflation and likely dumped as well.”

Similarly, crypto trader RunnerXBT  mentioned that it was a “dangerous” period to buy Solana, highlighting that Galaxy Digital, Pantera and Figure stand to gain $3 billion, $1 billion and $150 million, respectively, in unrealized profits once their SOL unlocks.

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The inference is that most of these companies are likely to sell their allocations, as there is little incentive to hold SOL amid worsening market sentiment exaggerated by the recent Libra (LIBRA) memecoin scandal — a memecoin  endorsed by Argentine President Javier Milei .

The project’s insiders allegedly siphoned over  $107 million worth of liquidity  in a rug pull, triggering a 94% price collapse within hours and wiping out $4 billion in investor capital.