FTX creditors receive first round of compensation, unlocking millions of SOL raises market concerns, is the risk being overstated?

On February 18, 2025, after a two-year liquidation process, FTX’s first round of creditor compensation was officially launched, marking a critical stage in this bankruptcy event. However, the market’s focus has shifted to another potential source of risk: the 11.2 million SOL tokens that will be unlocked on March 1, with a total value of about $1.9 billion. Although the current payment method of fiat currency settlement is relatively mild, the potential circulation of this batch of SOL tokens has caused market concerns, and the crypto ecosystem may once again bear the impact of FTX’s asset liquidation. Is this an excessive spread of panic in the market, or is there a real risk that it has not yet been fully priced in?

! FTX’s first round of repayment is open, and 11.2 million SOL is about to be unlocked, causing market selling anxiety, an overestimated “wolf”?

Small creditors receive full compensation with interest

Public information shows that this round of compensation targets small creditors with a claim amount of $50,000 or less, initial beneficiaries (. According to the reorganization plan, these creditors will not only receive full repayment but will also enjoy an additional annual interest of 9%, potentially receiving a fiat currency payment equivalent to 119% of the original claim.

According to creditor Sunil, approximately $800 million has been paid so far, covering 162,000 accounts, which accounts for 35% of the estimated 460,000 eligible claim accounts. Creditors with claims exceeding $50,000 will have to wait until after May 30 to receive their payments.

Earlier reports indicated that the overall repayment plan for the first phase involves $6.5 to $7 billion in funds, and this round of repayments is expected to last until March 4. However, the bankruptcy management team has not yet announced the actual total amount of the first round of repayments.

From the perspective of the payout mechanism, due to the use of fiat currency, this process itself may not cause violent fluctuations in the crypto market, and may even bring a certain amount of new capital inflow to the market.

![The first round of FTX repayments has begun, with 11.2 million SOL about to be unlocked, triggering market selling pressure anxiety. Is this an overvalued “wolf is coming”?])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-a25c4750b50c9df2c516df3a6d73d524(

Nearly $2 billion worth of SOL tokens are about to be unlocked

The market’s concern about FTX mainly stems from the auction disposal of its holdings of crypto assets such as Solana. Financial documents as of 2023 show that FTX’s total assets are only $4.77 billion, a difference of $6.8 billion from the estimated $11.5 billion in claims at the time. As the crypto market fully recovers in 2024, the value of crypto assets held by FTX has climbed significantly.

Among them, Solana has become the biggest contributor to the appreciation of FTX assets, with the SOL token experiencing a maximum increase of over 28 times since December 2022. As one of the major investors in Solana, FTX holds a large amount of locked SOL tokens. Monitoring data shows that as of February 17, FTX has sold 41 million SOL through three rounds of auctions, of which 11.2 million will be unlocked on March 1.

![FTX’s first round of repayment begins, 11.2 million SOL about to be unlocked causing market selling pressure anxiety, a “wolf is coming” scenario that is overvalued?])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-c4a6c67d63da0e2fe3132d6aeaec7280(

The tokens were not sold directly on the secondary market, but were sold over-the-counter, with buyers including Galaxy) for 25.52 million ( for $64, Pantera and other buyers ) for 13.67 million ( for $95, Figure and other buyers ) bought 1.8 million ( for $102. Overall, these SOL tokens generated $2.932 billion in revenue for FTX, making it the largest single revenue in its crypto asset liquidation.

Regarding the SOL tokens that are about to be unlocked, this batch of tokens has actually been traded through the auction, and only the actual delivery will be realized after unlocking. Although these tokens will enter circulation, and the cost of known buyers is generally lower than the current market price, there is a risk of profit-taking, but this part of the SOL that will be unlocked only accounts for 2.3% of the current circulating supply, and the overall impact is limited.

Progress on Disposal of Other Assets

In March 2024, FTX announced the sale of its investment in Mysten Labs), a Sui network development company, for $95 million. By the end of 2024, these assets had reached a peak value of $4.6 billion. For the market, Mysten Labs’ buyback of equity alleviated the potential selling pressure facing the SUI token.

In addition to Solana and Sui, Aptos is also a key public chain project invested in by FTX. In 2022, FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto jointly led a $150 million financing round for Aptos. However, Aptos has not yet disclosed the final handling results of FTX’s equity stake. Data from March 2023 showed that FTX held approximately 5 million APT tokens at that time, valued at about $31.65 million based on the price on February 19, but no APT holding records have currently been found in FTX’s on-chain address.

As of February 19, the largest holdings among FTX’s on-chain addresses were self-issued FTT tokens, with a total of 257 million and a value of about $505 million. Considering that the total market capitalization of FTT is only $657 million, a large-scale sell-off will have a sharp impact on the price. Although FTX has asked users to fill in the price of buying FTT, FTT is temporarily counted as zero in the fiat currency compensation plan, and the specific compensation plan for FTT holders is still unclear.

! FTX’s first round of repayment is open, and 11.2 million SOL is about to be unlocked, causing market selling anxiety, an overestimated “wolf”?

According to documents disclosed in 2023, FTX also held mainstream crypto assets such as 1.42 million AVAX, 36,000 BTC, 154,000 ETH and 29.7 million XRP. However, as of February 19, these assets no longer exist on FTX’s publicly available wallet address, and it appears that the sale has been completed in the liquidation process. Currently, the total value of FTX on-chain address holdings is about $1.269 billion.

With the start of the compensation process, the FTX bankruptcy event is gradually coming to an end. After more than two years of market restructuring, the crypto industry has formed a new pattern, and the impact of the FTX incident is gradually becoming history. The recent market volatility concerns caused by the disposal of FTX’s assets may be more of an excessive panic during the current market correction, and the actual impact may be over-amplified by the market.