Solana traders prepare for FTX-induced sell pressure on SOL — Is it premature?

cointelegraph.com:

For a long time, Solana has been associated with the founder of now-insolvent crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried. He was an early investor in the project and invested in numerous Solana ecosystem projects during the 2020-2021 bull mania.

So when FTX collapsed toward the end of 2022, Solana (SOL) and other “Sam coins” plummeted significantly — with Solana falling to lows of $9.89, down 96.3% from the peak of $259.96.

Since the start of 2023, Solana’s price has staged a recovery, gaining 175% to reach a peak of $27.37 as the ecosystem also witnessed growth.

However, more recently, SOL came under tremendous selling pressure after the Delaware Bankruptcy Court approved the sale of FTX’s digital assets, which include 55.75 million SOL worth $1.062 billion. However, the unlock schedule of FTX’s holdings and derivatives market positioning suggest that a counter move to the upside could happen instead.

After Judge John Dorsey made the ruling at a hearing on Sept. 13, the SOL price touched a weekly low of $17.96.

However, SOL gained around 4% on Sept. 14, with longs worth $800,000 liquidated since the prior day, per CoinGlass data.

Crypto trader MartyParty believes that selling pressure is overblown, as the majority of FTX’s SOL stake is vested from 2025 to 2027.

This is Alamedas Solana wallet which has the rights to the 26,740,743 staked $SOL from 2025-2028.

This wallets keys will be sold in the FTX liquidation. Not the $SOL which cannot be unlocked until 2025-2028.

As Ive been posting for weeks - FTX/Alameda only hold 7m $SOL and… pic.twitter.com/WeIkCKf2Ek

Moreover, derivatives traders piled on with short orders after the announcement, which could result in a counter move to the upside.

The Solana