FTX Estate's Recurring Solana Unstaking: The $12.99 Million June 2026 Move

This June event is not an isolated incident; it is the latest step in a highly structured, monthly ritual. The estate has maintained this systematic liquidation pattern since November 2023 . The process has become so regular that it typically occurs between the 10th and 15th of each month, with batches often falling in the range of 170,000 to 200,000 SOL .

While most months are consistent, exceptions exist. In March 2026, the estate executed a significantly larger unstaking of 1.1 million SOL . By October 2025, cumulative redemptions from the staking address had reached 9.173 million SOL, valued at approximately $1.85 billion based on an average transfer price of around $135 .

The Bigger Picture: The $12.7 Billion Repayment Plan

These recurring SOL liquidations are a funding mechanism for a massive, court-approved bankruptcy recovery plan. A U.S. court ordered FTX to pay $12.7 billion in relief to its customers through a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) . The bankruptcy team has committed to a 100% recovery of claim amounts, plus interest, for many creditors .

Progress on the payout has been significant:

• Total distributed so far: As of April 2026, approximately $7.6 billion had been returned to creditors .
• Outstanding amount: This left a gap of roughly $5.1 billion to be repaid .
• Cumulative payouts reached $10 billion: A critical milestone was reached with the latest major disbursement .
• The $2.2 billion fourth distribution: The FTX Recovery Trust began its fourth major distribution on March 31, 2026, totaling approximately $2.2 billion . Payments were delivered in USD through service providers BitGo, Kraken, and Payoneer to eligible creditors who completed pre-distribution requirements . This round pushed cumulative Chapter 11 payouts toward the $10 billion mark and brought several key creditor classes, including U.S. customers, to a full 100% recovery .

Remaining Solana Holdings Still Exceed $1 Billion

Despite the billions of dollars already liquidated, the FTX estate's Solana coffers are far from empty. A significant portion of its holdings comes from pre-bankruptcy purchases with multi-year unlock schedules .

As of March 2026, Alameda-linked wallets alone still held approximately 3.75 million SOL, worth roughly $321 million at that time . However, the total exposure is much larger. When including tokens still locked in vesting contracts, the estate's remaining Solana interests have been estimated to exceed $1 billion in face value . The continued monthly unlocking of these vesting tokens is the source of the recurring unstaking events, a pattern unlikely to stop soon.

Why Is the Market Impact So Muted?

The persistent, clockwork selling pressure could be expected to weigh heavily on Solana's price, yet the market impact has been surprisingly muted. This is by design. The liquidators use a clear playbook to minimize disruption: after unstaking, tokens are fragmented across multiple intermediary wallets before trickling into centralized exchanges . This approach avoids a single, large, market-moving sell event.

Furthermore, the broader market context has absorbed much of the pressure. Some analysts have even posited that the massive creditor payouts, such as the $2.2 billion cycle starting in March 2026, could represent a source of buy-side liquidity returning to the crypto market, counteracting the sell pressure from the liquidations .