SOL up over 21% in a year since Alameda’s balance sheet hole came to light

Solana’s SOL token is up 21.08% a year after it was revealed that a large chunk of trading firm Alameda Research’s assets were in FTT — the token issued by its sister cryptocurrency exchange FTX — which was the first domino to fall in the collapse of FTX. 

See related article: Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty on all charges

Fast facts

• FTX was one of the biggest investors in the Solana ecosystem, and Sam Bankman-Fried was an outspoken supporter and early investor in the blockchain. 

• SOL traded at US$38.45 as of 7:20 p.m. in Hong Kong and has been one of the best-performing altcoins of 2023 with a 319% increase year to date.
• CoinDesk published an article on Nov. 2, 2022, which revealed an “unusually close” relationship between Alameda and FTX. The report also found that Alameda then had US$292 million of “unlocked SOL,” US$863 million of “locked SOL” and US$41 million in “SOL collateral.
• On Nov.11, 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy. Almost a year later, on Nov. 3, 2023, Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud. His sentencing is scheduled for March 2024 and faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. 

• An FTX-related wallet unstaked 1.6 million SOL tokens on Wednesday, worth around US$61.5 million.

• SOL rose to a 14-month high of US$46.25 on Wednesday, a level not seen since Aug. 2022, according to CoinMarketCap. The token is up over 319% this year.
• Non-fungible token (NFT) sales on the Solana blockchain rose 10.06% in the past 30 days to US$29 million, according to CryptoSlam. However, the Forkast SOL NFT Composite fell 2.28% to 616.71 points in the same timeframe. 

See related article: XRP approved by Dubai’s Financial Services Authority