While the meme coin market continues to struggle, a Solana whale caused ripples in the market on Wednesday by acquiring a large amount of SOL for staking purposes. With the crypto market going bearish, the whale scooped up 87,000 SOL for staking
Which is worth around $14.8 million. At that moment, SOL was trading around $169. These events have been the talk of traders and investors, as the altcoin has dropped nearly 15% over the past week due to a $4.5 billion insider trading scandal involving SOL-based meme coins. Now, the question is, can the altcoin recover above $200?
Solana Whale Stake $15M SOL Mishap Ignites Market Speculation
A Solana whale tagged ‘Guf5kl’ reportedly withdrew 87,328 SOL (about $14.8 million) from Binance a few days ago, then proceeded to stake it. This information was shared on X by Lookonchain on the 19th of February.
Although the funding of the staking wallet fueled controversy due to speculative meme coins, it did signal strong faith in the Solana ecosystem’s internal mechanisms. Some traders were not pleased with the increased staking activity, especially during this time of heightened scrutiny over Solana’s ecosystem.
Even if Solana has built a reputation of being the home of numerous scalable tokens and efficient platforms, it has recently come under fire due to meme coin implosions.
The LIBRA meme-coin that was once touted by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, has lost its charm just like many other Solana dependent tokens TRUMP and MELANIA. Due to those events, fear has set in the market to overshadow the positive impacts of the increased staking activity.
$4.5 Billion Insider Trading Scandal
Reports from CoinGape suggest that LIBRA’s insider trading scandal rocked the Solana ecosystem to its core. The meme coin that enjoyed heavy publicity courtesy of President Milei soared wildly in value reaching a market cap of $4.5 billion.
Deplorably, it was later uncovered that a small group of investors controlled close to 82% of the total cubic supply, thus leading to insider manipulation. The LIBRA development team was also accused of draining the liquidity while a sniper trader made $107 million before the token’s collapse.
This has fueled speculation on sponsors behind the collapses of MELANIA and LIBRA thinking there is even more uncertainty in Solana and the ecosystem. Worries persist over the impact of meme coin scandals on their tokens and the price of SOL, even with increased staking activity.
Price of SOL Shifts
As of this report, the price of SOL is trading at $171.16 and has traded sideways over the past 24 hour period. The lowest and highest points of the coin during the day were $161.31 and $171.34, respectively. Traders and investors remain cautious over price movements due to outline trends as well as recent network related changes even after the Solana whale did some massive staking.
SOL has dropped approximately 15% from February 15 up to now, which is an increase in decline after the new meme coin was launched on the network. Also, the lack of movement in the price of SOL can be linked to the decline in the activity of the network, according to another report from the CoinGape. For this reason, the current situation for the layer 1 crypto is quite low and uncertain and with macro heat, parsley has made the market even more tough.
