FTX’s $100M Weekly Crypto Sell-Off: Which Coins Will Feel the Heat?
Following the conclusion of Sam Bankman-Fried's trial in October, the FTX saga enters a new phase as the bankruptcy team continues its arduous task of addressing the aftermath.
Despite commendable strides in recovering lost assets, the full restitution of customers impacted by the exchange’s downfall remains an ongoing endeavor.
FTX recently unveiled plans to liquidate roughly $100 million worth of cryptocurrencies on a weekly basis until approximately one million creditors receive compensations, aiming for maximum reimbursement. However, regulatory intervention, akin to the SEC’s involvement in Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy, poses a potential obstacle to FTX’s execution of this strategy.
While the SEC’s previous efforts failed in Voyager’s case, uncertainties persist regarding FTX’s proposed liquidation and its potential market impact.
Questions emerge regarding which cryptocurrencies might bear the brunt of these significant weekly sell-offs.
FTX holds a substantial stake in Solana (SOL), accounting for about 10% of its total supply, valued at over $3.3 billion, marking it as the primary cryptocurrency within the defunct exchange’s holdings.
Beyond SOL, FTX’s significant holdings include Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), with respective values of $742 million and $226 million. However, these holdings represent a minimal fraction, approximately 0.1%, of their respective total circulating supplies, potentially limiting their market disruption upon sale.
Other cryptocurrencies like Aptos (APT) and XRP also capture attention due to FTX’s holdings of approximately $180 million and $143 million, respectively.
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Despite concerns surrounding the impact of offloading $100 million worth of cryptocurrency weekly, historical instances, such as FTX’s recent sale of Solana, suggest limited influence on cryptocurrency prices. Notably, despite selling approximately $100 million worth of SOL in the ten days leading up to November 3, the token’s value surged well beyond $60 by November 15, signaling resilience in the face of significant liquidation.
Similar scenarios in the past, such as the U.S. government’s sale of 49,000 BTC seized from the Silk Road in 2021 and 2022, sparked concerns about market volatility but ultimately had negligible effects on cryptocurrency prices.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
