The bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has concluded the sale of $2.6 billion worth of discounted Solana tokens. Figure Markets and Pantera Capital were among the buyers who raked up the final troves of SOL tokens from FTX after weeks of auctions.
The results of the auction were disclosed by two undisclosed sources, according to Bloomberg, who stated that Figure acquired a bundle of 800,000 coins for approximately $80 million.
Deep Discounts in FTX’s Solana Tokens
One of the sources mentioned that Figure paid an estimated $102 per token, representing a significant markdown from Solana’s current market price of approximately $166. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Mike Cagney, had earlier revealed that they would establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that would be accessible to both non-US and US investors, allowing them to participate in the auctions.
Two unnamed 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 sale of Solana tokens has stirred controversy within the bankruptcy proceedings of FTX, a collapsed cryptocurrency firm once led by convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, a.k.a SBF.
Earlier in March this year, Pantera aimed to raise $250 million from investors to acquire Solana tokens from FTX. The following month, Pantera successfully secured a batch of discounted Solana tokens as a winning bidder.
Besides Pantera, major crypto firms 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 off directly since the bankruptcy proceedings began. FTX initiated these direct sales as a means to liquidate its holdings of the SOL token.
FTX Users Lose Big
Many crypto users lost their life savings in the collapse of FTX. Subsequently, the crypto market made a remarkable recovery from the 2022 crash, with Bitcoin ultimately soaring to new ATH.
The assets they had entrusted to FTX – had they not been locked up in bankruptcy – would have grown to at least $4 million, according to estimates made by two victims who had parked their funds at the fraudulent exchange.
FTX claims it can gather enough funds to repay creditors 100% of what they are owed, plus interest.
However, instead of getting their crypto back, creditors will receive US dollars based on the accounts’ value at FTX’s November 2022 collapse. Since Bitcoin’s price has roughly quadrupled since then, they missed out on the largest crypto bull run since the pandemic.