The Solana price growth for the past few months seems to have hit a barrier just above the $120 price level. The price of Solana (SOL) fell around 8% on Thursday to about $98, showing the sheer volatile nature of the crypto market.
As a result, Solana slipped below BNB in market cap rankings, as the latter rallied 9% to take back the fourth spot. According to on-chain data, there’s been an increase in transfers of what looks like profit-taking from Solana whales.
Large Whale Sells $38.2 Million in SOL Tokens
When whales move a lot of crypto, they can really shake things up. According to Lookonchain, an anonymous investor deposited 303,756 SOL tokens worth approximately $38.2 million on Binance, possibly as part of a selloff. Further details show this particular whale has made strategic SOL trades in the past, making huge profits.
The whale withdrew 19,704 SOL from Binance on Sept 29. Solana was trading at $20 during this time, making the transfer worth approximately $394,000. The whale would then deposit it into Binance at $43 per token on Nov 8, making $453,000, a 115% profit. Data from Lookonchain shows that the address still has 119,998 SOL tokens worth $12.44 million staked, and is sitting on over $17 million unrealized profit.
A whale deposited 303,756 $SOL($32.8M) to #Binance today, possibly selling it for profit.
The whale withdrew 423,754 $SOL($28.18M) at $66.5 from #Binance in the past 1 month.
And still has 119,998 $SOL ($12.44M) staked, the profit exceeding $17M!
This whale also withdrew… pic.twitter.com/Sptfj7uUIa
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 28, 2023
Speculation that other large holders of SOL, known as “whales,” sold off portions of their holdings recently may have contributed to the recent price dip. Similar social media posts from whale transaction tracker whale alerts have shown various large SOL transfers from private wallets into crypto exchanges on Thursday, suggesting whales locking in profits or reducing their exposure to the token.
Two of the most notable transactions were the transfer of 1,832,958 SOL worth $182.9 million from an unknown wallet to Coinbase and the transfer of 114,046 SOL worth $11.5 million from another private wallet to Coinbase.
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 28, 2023
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 28, 2023
Trading data also suggests traders were moving funds out of SOL to stablecoins. As a result, Solana’s price cascaded and fell from $110 to $98 in 24 hours.
Current State Of Solana
The SOL community and ecosystem have witnessed one of the best price growth this year. Over the past 24 hours, around $18.6 million worth of Solana positions were liquidated, with $10.42 million coming from leveraged long positions, data from CoinGlass shows. This profit-taking sentiment seems to have rolled over into BONK, Solana’s first dog-themed meme token, which is now 50% down from its all-time high.
Solana has since recovered some of the loss, and is now trading at $108, showing the crypto hasn’t lost all of its bullish momentum. Solana recently reached a yearly high of $123.76 on December 25, its highest point in 20 months.