Solana's price tumbled significantly on February 18, marked by a 8.54% decline in the past 24 hours, with the price falling from $181 to $165. The sell-off was accompanied by an increase in the 24h trading volume, which increased 80.41% to $5.22 billion. Two main factors appear to be driving the recent market volatility. Scams like the LIBRA collapse have shaken market confidence, while traders are selling ahead of the March 1 token unlock event when over 11 million new SOL tokens will enter the market, potentially putting downward pressure on the price.
The token unlock, scheduled over March through April 2025, will release 15 million SOL tokens valued at approximately $7 billion into circulation. Three major cryptocurrency investment companies stand to make significant profits from the Solana unlock. Galaxy bought their tokens at $64 in FTX auctions and could earn $3 billion. Meanwhile, Pantera may gain $1 billion, and Figure $150 million from their holdings.
However, not everyone views this situation as dire. Kelly Greer from Galaxy has attempted to calm market fears by pointing out that current daily trading volumes should be sufficient to absorb any selling pressure. Additionally, upcoming catalysts such as the Firedancer upgrade and a potential SOL ETF could provide positive momentum in the longer term.
The LIBRA token collapse began with a single post from Argentina's President Javier Milei at 23:01 CET. According to KobeissiLetter, while the launch initially generated speculation similar to US President Trump's $TRUMP memecoin, troubling signs were quickly uncovered. The project's website was created only hours before the launch, and while it claimed to boost Argentina's economy through small project funding, it only implemented this through a Google Form for applications. Additionally, the domain had been registered for just one year, with all owner information hidden from public view. The token's distribution raised even more red flags, with 82% of all LIBRA tokens concentrated in a single cluster, and no transparency regarding the project's tokenomics. Within just three hours of launch, insiders had managed to extract $87.4 million. According to Bubblemaps data, an insider address linked to LIBRA used sniping techniques (an automated trading strategy that uses bots to execute rapid trades) to acquire tokens at launch, securing a $6 million profit before the collapse. The blockchain analysis revealed that the creator likely leveraged insider knowledge to execute these trades while prices remained low. Insiders also used a sophisticated exit strategy: rather than selling directly on the open market, these actors created one-sided liquidity pools on Meteora, the Solana-based decentralized exchange. They systematically removed USD and SOL from these pools while adding only LIBRA tokens, effectively masking their exit. This strategic manipulation culminated in a catastrophic price drop of over 90% as the massive insider sales finally overwhelmed all remaining buy pressure at the token's peak.
Argentina's main stock index fell more than 5.6% yesterday due to the LIBRA scandal.
Ben Chow, co-founder Meteora, has stepped down following allegations that he privately received or managed LIBRA tokens.
A Fox News interview between Trump and Musk is scheduled to air Feb 19 at 03:00 CET, timed just before the FOMC meeting. Given both figures' connections to cryptocurrency, the interview could affect market dynamics, especially if discussions touch on crypto policy, regulation, or institutional adoption.
The Fed's January meeting minutes, due Wednesday, are expected to reinforce their cautious stance on rate cuts, particularly given higher-than-expected CPI and PPI readings. The original meeting saw rates held steady, with the Fed emphasizing the need for clearer inflation progress. Trump's proposed tariffs add another potential inflationary concern to the economic outlook.
According to a recent post by Ali Martinez on X, Bitcoin miners have transferred more than 2,000 BTC to exchanges in the past week, reflecting a drop in confidence.
The SEC’s Crypto Task Force, led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, met with Jito Labs and Multicoin Capital on Feb 5 to explore the possibility of integrating staking into crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs). The discussion focused on staking models aimed at enhancing investor returns and network security.
Today, two Ethereum whales deposited 5,800 ETH into exchanges within 4 hours, worth about $15.73 million according to on-chain analyst Ai Yi.
A US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) affiliated account, @ DOGE_SEC, posted on X: "DOGE is seeking help from the public! Please DM this account with insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud and abuse relating to the Securities and Exchange Commissions".
Indian authorities seized $190 million in crypto assets tied to the BitConnect ponzi scheme which collapsed in 2018. BitConnect, founded in 2016 by Satish Kumbhani, raised billions of dollars from investors, claiming to offer 10% interest returns through its investment protocol.
