Solana price slumps amid FTX, Binance founder fallout

Quick Take

  • Solana fell as traders dumped the token during a public spat between the founders of Binance and FTX exchanges.

The price of Solana (SOL) fell 9% amid a spat between the founders of Binance and FTX crypto exchanges, Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried.

SolUSD chart by TradingView.

Aggregate open interest across SOL, of which $1.2 billion of locked and unlocked tokens appear on the balance sheet of Alameda also fell just over 13% over the last four hours, data from Coinglass show.

The token's prominence on the Alameda balance sheet came to light in a CoinDesk report which touched off the apparent spat between CZ and Bankman-Fried that started over the weekend and spilled into today. The report exposed a number of large positions the company holds in illiquid assets, notably FTT, a token created by FTX, and the Solana tokens. Alameda is also owned by Bankman-Fried.

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The report caused concerns over the trading firm’s capacity to cover its debt positions, and any ensuing systemic instability, likely further exacerbated by the revelation from Zhao that Binance would exit its FTX-based positions. 

Trading firm B2C2 noted earlier that the prices of SOL and FTT tokens may more immediately steer crypto markets even more than the coming Consumer Price Index print, as the renowned founders duked it out over social media.

Despite trader reactions to the row between founders, trading on FTX relatively stabilized amid Monday’s market activity.

Update: Corrected the amount of SOL on Alameda's balance sheet.


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About Author

Jeremy Nation is a senior reporter at The Block covering the greater blockchain ecosystem. Prior to joining The Block, Jeremy worked as a product content specialist at Bullish and Block.one. He also served as a reporter for ETHNews. Follow him on Twitter @ETH_Nation.

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