Amidst the broader cryptocurrency market’s volatility, Solana ($SOL) has faced an additional headwind, a persistent sell-off by a significant whale or institutional holder that has already offloaded over $99 million worth of the cryptocurrency on the market.
According to on-chain analysis service Lookonchain, the potential institutional investor has been steadily offloading their SOL holdings through the year, adding selling pressure to the cryptocurrency.
Data shared by the service shows that the whale has sold 695,000 SOL tokens so far this year, and has been selling an average of 19,306 SOL, around $2.75 million, per week since the year started.
Notably, the whale still holds 1.88 million SOL tokens worth over $250 million, which are currently earning yield on the network while being staked.
A whale/institution sold 695K $SOL($99.5M) this year!Since Jan 1, this whale/institution has been selling an average of 19,306 $SOL($2.76M) weekly, totaling nearly $100 million worth of $SOL!The whale/institution still has 1.88M $SOL($255.89M) staked.https://t.co/v6mJegPKCa… pic.twitter.com/3XHhPQJbdq
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 3, 2024
Solana is at the time of writing trading at $129 after losing around 9% of its value over the past month amid a wider cryptocurrency market downturn that saw the price of Bitcoin plunge below the $58,000 mark.
The smart contract platform is, however, up more than 27% so far this year and more than 560% over the last 12-month period after it saw a significant bull run while recovering from the collapse of FTX, which was a major supporter of the Solana ecosystem.
Featured image via Unsplash.
