Crypto news: the Solana boom pushes FTX holdings to $3.3 billion.

Recently, the surge of Solana has led FTX holdings to reach 3.3 billion dollars, creating excitement in the crypto market. 

Currently, the value of FTX’s SOL holdings has exceeded $3.3 billion, compared to the $1.16 billion recorded at the beginning of the current year. Let’s see all the details below. 

The Incredible Rise of SOL Crypto Holdings in FTX in 2023

As anticipated, a sudden rally in crypto prices, as in the case of Solana (SOL) currently trading at 78 dollars, has triggered intense activity in the bankruptcy claims market of FTX, according to experts in the distressed cryptocurrency industry.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, previously involved in a bankruptcy experience last year, has actively supported the Solana project.

The exchange currently holds a significant amount of 55.8 million SOL tokens, as indicated by CoinGecko.

The majority of these holdings in SOL, amounting to 42.2 million, are currently locked and not immediately tradable on the market. 

However, their market value, which was 1.16 billion dollars at the beginning of this year, has now tripled, amounting to over 3.3 billion dollars.

Thomas Braziel, CEO of 100 Partners, suggests that this increase in the value of cryptocurrencies held by FTX could lead to a 60% recovery. 

Therefore, this would create a situation in which struggling companies seeking to acquire credits find themselves competing at prices ranging from 70 to 117 cents per dollar. 

Braziel states that the bankruptcy claims market has become extremely dynamic, with every possible issue previously excluded now at the center of discussions, such as the lack of KYC/AML verification. 

Initially, the requests were strict; now, any understandable and controllable aspect is taken into consideration.

Vladimir Jelisavcic, founder and manager of Cherokee Acquisition, confirms that competition for FTX requests has recently become intense. 

He attributes the drastic increase in prices to Solana and the anticipation of a modified plan that should be filed by December 16th.

Solana threatens XRP and celebrates the success of BONK 

As anticipated, Solana (SOL) is making significant progress, challenging XRP’s position in terms of market capitalization, according to CoinGecko data. 

Currently, Solana ranks sixth in the cryptocurrency market, with a valuation of approximately 32.18 billion dollars, approaching the 34.20 billion dollars of XRP.

In addition, recently, the meme currency BONK on the Solana blockchain has surprisingly surpassed the market capitalization of EOS, attracting the attention of the crypto community.

This exceptional success has led BONK to obtain listings on major exchanges, with Binance, one of the leading global cryptocurrency exchanges, announcing its listing of BONK with a Seed Tag. 

This signals a growing recognition and adoption by the mainstream for this meme currency.

The success of BONK not only reflects the eccentric nature of the cryptocurrency market, but also highlights the growing influence and potential of the Solana ecosystem.

Could Bitcoin ETFs bring the market back to the pre-FTX situation?

As we know, the cryptocurrency market had eagerly awaited the potential approval of Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), seen as a more convenient method for traditional investors to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies. 

With the final deadline of several requests set for January 2024, the predominant question was whether ETFs would be able to restore crypto liquidity to pre-FTX levels.

A recent report from cryptocurrency market data provider, Kaiko, has identified ETFs as the “single most important catalyst” for boosting liquidity measures such as market depth and trading volumes.

The chart clearly shows how market depth has been compromised following the FTX collapse, remaining weak for much of 2023. Even the ongoing market rally has not led to a significant recovery.

On the other hand, spot ETFs would require the purchase of significant quantities of Bitcoin by authorized cryptocurrency exchanges or other holders, with the occasional possibility of selling coins to rebalance their holdings. 

In addition, it is expected that spot ETFs will replicate the actual price of the underlying Bitcoins. 

In order to maintain this parity, arbitrageurs would carry out buying and selling operations based on whether the ETF shares are traded at a premium or a discount compared to the price of Bitcoin.

Therefore, according to Kaiko, the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs would have represented a solid probability of increasing market liquidity.