FTX and Alameda Contagion Fears Tank NFT Markets

Rumors of Alameda liquidating its Solana holdings are sending SOL’s price into free fall; both Solana and Ethereum-based NFT markets are getting hit hard by the news.

By Cam Thompson

Nov 9, 2022 at 8:01 p.m. UTC

Updated Nov 9, 2022 at 8:16 p.m. UTC

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Cam Thompson

Cam Thompson is a news reporter at CoinDesk.

Follow @camlearnscrypto on Twitter

Non-fungible token (NFT) markets are experiencing a stunning landslide in the wake of the news of Binance’s potential acquisition of FTX, shaking up several prominent exchanges.

Built on the backs of Ethereum and Solana, NFTs have fallen in value drastically in the past day since a scoop from CoinDesk spurred the collapse of FTX. While Binance’s plan to purchase Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire briefly paused prices from dropping, fresh doubts that the deal will finalize have driven prices down again.

In the past day, ETH has fallen nearly 7% and SOL has tumbled 37%.

Solana's price drop on Monday sparked speculation that Alameda had sold off a large tranche of SOL in a rush to earn new liquidity. The research firm's balance sheet showed SOL as its second-largest holding.

Regardless of what actually happened, NFT marketplaces are feeling the pain of this contagion.

According to data from Dune Analytics, OpenSea’s daily NFT trading volume on Solana has fallen from about 4,900 SOL, or $70,000, to just shy of 1,000 SOL, or $14,000 since Tuesday. For Solana-based leading NFT marketplace Magic Eden, trading volume of SOL has fallen from about 153,000 SOL or $2.5 million to almost 84,000 SOL, or about $1.4 million.

Additional data from Dune showcases OpenSea’s daily trading volume on Ethereum has also fallen from about 6,000 ETH, or $7.1 million, to about 3,900 ETH or $4.6 million in the past day.

According to a Tweet posted Wednesday by Twitter user @Punk9059, director of research at NFT collective PROOF, OpenSea is experiencing its all-time high ratio of wrapped ETH to ETH volume, meaning that NFT buyers are purchasing NFTs at bid prices, rather than buyers purchasing assets at seller’s offer prices, suggesting that users are trying to liquidate as soon as possible.

While FTX.US’s NFT marketplace won’t be a part of Binance’s basket at checkout, it’s home to NFTs built on Solana and Ethereum, whose values are tanking as these tokens face the blow of these assets dropping in value while liquidations are underway.

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