Binance Accused of Dumping Its Solana (SOL) and Ethereum (ETH) Holdings, Sending Prices Into a Tailspin

Rumors and speculation are common in the volatile world of cryptocurrency, but recent allegations against Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, have

Rumors and speculation can run rampant in the volatile world of cryptocurrency. Recently, swirling claims against Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, have set off a firestorm. Are they secretly dumping their Solana (SOL) and Ethereum (ETH) holdings, causing the market to go wild? Here’s a look at what’s going on and why it matters.

The Claims Surface During a Market Downturn

As Bitcoin’s price hovers at levels last seen in November 2024, deepening investor fears, the recent market downturn, worsened by the $1.4 billion Bybit hack, has set the stage perfectly for speculation.

Rumors that major crypto players, such as Binance, are driving the crash by quietly dumping their tokens via over-the-counter (OTC) trades have been circulating widely on social media.

Binance to the Rescue: ‘We’re Just Matching Trades’

These allegations have been met with staunch denials from Binance.

“Binance hasn’t ‘dumped’ or ‘sold’ large amounts of tokens as some tweets have wrongly claimed. They are misunderstanding what Binance does as an exchange, which is we just help users match trades,” an exchange representative told users.

Simply put, this statement distills Binance’s role into that of a neutral intermediary — a marketplace which brings buyers and sellers together, not a market participant putting its finger on the scale. The exchange asserts that it does not influence users’ trading decisions, including those of market makers.

More News: Binance Review 2025: Is It Legit? What Are Binance Pros and Cons?

The Wintermute Factor: Dissecting A Market Maker’s Moves

A bulk of the speculation is centering around the activity of Wintermute, a major crypto market maker. According to data obtained by Arkham Intelligence, more than $38.2 million worth of Solana was withdrawn from Binance hot wallets in the 24 hours leading up to February 24.

Wintermute withdrew from Binance hot wallet. Source: Arkham Intelligence

UPDATE 📊🚨 BREAKING: Wintermute withdraws $38M in $SOL from Binance ahead of Solana’s $2B token unlock! 🚨

Market makers making moves! Is this a signal for something BIG? Accumulation or pre-dump liquidity management?

What’s your take on this? Drop your thoughts below! 🔥👇

— NFTPROVERSE (@NFTPROVERSE) February 25, 2025

What are Market Makers?

Market makers like Wintermute are crucial to the crypto ecosystem, ensuring liquidity by continuously quoting bid and ask prices. This activity leads to large token movements between exchanges and wallets as they adjust their inventory.

Solana Unlock: Potential Market Consequences and Speculation

Complicating matters further, these withdrawals come just days ahead of Solana’s highly anticipated $2 billion token unlock, set for March 1. This will introduce over 11.2 million SOL tokens into circulation, potentially adding selling pressure to the market.

Some speculate that Wintermute timed its withdrawals strategically to capitalize on the unlock, perhaps by shorting the market.

Solana Unlocked: A High-Stakes Gamble?

Crypto analyst Artchick.eth stated that over the next three months, 15m+ of SOL (worth ~$2.5b) will enter circulation. Many of these tokens were purchased at $64 per SOL in FTX’s auctions by firms such as Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital and even Figure.

$7.5B of SOL unlocks over the next three months, this is the largest unlock in history by far

The majority of this SOL was purchased from FTX auctions at $64 by Galaxy, still a very healthy profit

“But they are OTCing”

Yeah what do you think the OTC buyers are gonna do with it – they are gonna use it to short the entire market of course

— artchick.eth/acc 🔥👠 (@digitalartchick) February 16, 2025

These words were also echoed by crypto trader RunnerXBT, who called it a “dangerous” time to be buying Solana. RunnerXBT noted the anticipated profits for Galaxy Digital, Pantera and Figure, which are scheduled to unlock $3 billion, $1 billion and $150 million worth of SOL, respectively, if the market appreciates. This impending profit-taking could exert considerable pressure on the SOL price.

The Double-Edged Sword of Blockchain Transparency

At all cryptocurrency exchanges, protecting user transaction data is part of regulatory compliance, and while the transparency of blockchain is one of the greatest benefits of cryptocurrencies, it’s important to interpret transaction data with caution, as Binance emphasized.

“While blockchain transparency is one of the best things about crypto, it’s important not to jump to conclusions about screenshots of transactions,” the spokesperson said. Finally, Binance urges users to familiarize themselves with the roles of exchanges and market makers before jumping to conclusions.

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