Solana Whale Continues $86M Selloff with $2.8M Transaction

A Solana whale has continued their selloff with a recent $2.8 million transaction to exchanges, part of an ongoing dump that began in January. This latest move brings the total amount sold to approximately $86 million for the year.

On August 13th, on-chain analytics firm LookOnChain brought attention to the significant whale activity.

A whale sold 594K $SOL($86M) this year!

Since Jan 15, this whale has deposited 594K $SOL($86M) to #Coinbase, #Binance, and #OKX, averaging one sale per week.

The last sale was 16 hours ago.https://t.co/v6mJegPKCa pic.twitter.com/5CU24VPvtt

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 13, 2024

The whale wallet has been dumping tokens weekly since January 15th. According to the data firm, the whale has transferred at least 594,000 SOL tokens to Coinbase, Binance, and OKX this year.

The tokens are worth about $86 million in total, as SOL’s price hovers at $145.07. The whale sold tokens at least once per week, with the latest sale being a 20,000 SOL (about $2.8 million) token transaction.

A move that has been interpreted as a dollar-cost averaging strategy, gradually selling tokens over time rather than making a single, large transaction.

Solana Whale Dumps Despite Favourable Prospects

This series of dumps comes amid the rising anticipation of a US Solana-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Asset managers VanEck, 21Shares, and others filed to form a spot Solana ETF earlier this year.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s deadline to either approve or reject the applications is March 2025. While the approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs this year has built up hopes that Solana could be next, some experts remain pessimistic.

However, Solana ETFs have gained traction elsewhere. The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) approved a Solana ETF on August 7th.

The Solana-based ETF is the first of its kind in Brazil and one of the pioneering Solana-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) globally.

Currently, the Solana ETF is in a pre-operational stage and awaits approval from the Brazilian stock exchange, B3. However, a US-based Solana ETF remains the most credible catalyst to the Solana price.

Ether Whale Activity Is Mixed

Meanwhile, following the launch of the Ethereum ETF, whale activity in Ether has shown inconsistency. Some whales have been observed dumping their tokens, while others have continued to reaffirm their positions.

A whale linked to the Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) has been offloading tokens for over a month. On August 12, LookOnChain flagged a substantial $13.2 million Ether whale transaction to OKX in a move to sell

The wallet, which received 1 million ETH during the Ethereum ICO, has been selling tokens since July 8. Its total number of tokens deposited to OKX is $154 million, at an average price of $3,176.

Despite the recent sale, another whale has taken the opposite position with a similar amount. On the same day, an Ethereum wallet scooped up 5,000 ETH, adding about $12.8 million to their portfolio.

Notably, the last time this whale address bought the dip was when Ether fell to the $2,100 mark, shortly before it recovered to $3,100, according to an August 12th X post by Scopescan.