Markets
Figure Markets and Pantera Snap Up Last Pieces of FTX’s Solana Reserve (SOL): Report
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has completed the sale of $2.6 billion worth of Solana tokens at a discount. Figure Markets and Pantera Capital were among the buyers who scooped up FTX’s latest SOL token troves after weeks of auctions.
The auction results were disclosed by two undisclosed sources, according to Bloomberg, which said Figure acquired a bundle of 800,000 coins for around $80 million.
Big Discounts on FTX’s Solana Tokens
One of the sources mentioned this figure paid around $102 per token, which is a significant drop from Solana’s current market price of around $166. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Mike Cagney, had already revealed that they would create a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that would be accessible to non-US and US investors, allowing them to participate in the auctions.
Two anonymous sources further revealed that Pantera Capital also participated in the recent auction, but the amount paid by the venture capital fund is not known.
The Solana token sale has sparked controversy amid the bankruptcy proceedings of FTX, a bankrupt cryptocurrency company once run by convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, aka SBF.
Earlier in March this year, Pantera aimed to raise $250 million from investors to acquire Solana tokens from FTX. The following month, Pantera managed to secure a discounted batch of Solana tokens as the winning bidder.
Besides Pantera, major crypto companies such as Neptune Digital Assets Corp and Galaxy Trading have also shown keen interest in acquiring portions of the Solana tokens that FTX has been selling directly since the bankruptcy proceedings began. FTX initiated these direct sales in order to liquidate its SOL token holdings.
FTX Users Lose Big
Many crypto users lost their savings in the FTX collapse. Subsequently, the crypto market recovered remarkably after the 2022 crash, with Bitcoin eventually reaching a new ATH.
The assets they entrusted to FTX – had they not been locked into bankruptcy – would have reached at least $4 million, according to estimates made by two victims who had parked their funds on the fraudulent exchange.
FTX claims it can raise enough funds to pay creditors 100% of what they are owed, plus interest.
However, instead of getting their crypto back, creditors will receive US dollars based on the value of the accounts when FTX collapses in November 2022. Since the price of Bitcoin has almost quadrupled since then, they missed out on the biggest crypto bull run since pandemic.