A recent development involves FTX, a once-prominent exchange undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. The bankruptcy trustees have moved significantly by staking 5.5 million Solana (SOL) cryptocurrency units.
FTX’s Locked Solana Assets
Market News—The current market value of FTX’s total Solana assets is an impressive $1.16 billion. However, it’s important to note that a large portion of these assets are locked in a lock-up period and will not be fully available until 2028.
On October 13, Whale Alert, a blockchain tracker and analytics system known for its timely updates on high-value cryptocurrency transactions, reported a transfer of 5.5 million SOL. This piqued the interest of many in the crypto community.
Following this revelation, Ashpool, an on-chain researcher, identified that this substantial amount of SOL belonged to the FTX estate. Ashpool further revealed that these funds were directed towards Figment, a validator in the Solana network. (Validators are nodes in a blockchain network that validate transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain.)
Exploring the Potential Outcomes and Rewards of SOL Staking
The potential outcome of SOL staking can vary greatly depending on several factors. Some sources assert that SOL staking traditionally offers around 5.5% Annual Percentage Yield (APY). Yet, others suggest that, depending on the staking platform chosen, it can yield as much as 14.47% APY.
Rewards for staking in Solana are distributed approximately every 2-3 days. However, the precise frequency of rewards can fluctuate based on network conditions and other variables.
FTX’s estate holds roughly $1.16 billion in SOL, but not all are immediately accessible due to the abovementioned lock-up. Specifically, 12 million of FTX’s SOL cache will be released every 30 days until 2027, and an additional 34.52 million SOL will be gradually unlocked every month until 2028.
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These caches are disbursing monthly SOL that FTX can sell or stake. However, FTX also has the option to sell the keys to the entire vested cache before its official release.
This development has sparked widespread discussion and speculation within the crypto community about the potential impact on Solana’s value and market dynamics.