Galaxy Digital Swaps $106.5M ETH for SOL Amid Ethereum's 51.5% Price Drop

Galaxy Digital, a prominent crypto financial services firm, has reportedly exchanged over $100 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) for Solana (SOL). This move comes as Ethereum struggles to maintain its price momentum and market share. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that Galaxy deposited 65,600 ETH, valued at $106.5 million, and withdrew 752,240 SOL, valued at $105 million, from Binance exchange over the past two weeks, according to data from Arkham.

Arkham's data indicates that Galaxy currently holds around 55,760 ETH, worth $90.5 million, and 171,315 SOL, worth $23.91 million. A significant portion of Galaxy's recent withdrawals from Binance have been transferred to unmarked wallet addresses, as shown by transaction data.

Galaxy's decision to swap ETH for SOL may reflect growing bearish sentiment around Ethereum, characterized by a notable price correction and diminishing investor confidence. Earlier today, ETH dominance—the ratio of ETH's market cap to the total crypto market cap—fell to its lowest point in history, briefly dropping below 7%. This dominance has declined by 43% since the start of the year, during which its market price decreased by 51.5%. Ether is currently trading at $1,627.

In contrast, Bitcoin has shown resilience in the past day amid a U.S. tariff-induced market downturn. The ETH-to-BTC price ratio is also down 48% year-to-date. This bearish sentiment surrounding ether is further evidenced by institutional sell-offs, with U.S. Ethereum exchange-traded funds recording eight straight weeks of net outflows totaling over $909 million.

Ethereum's position as a dominant network in decentralized finance is also being challenged due to its ongoing scalability issues. Ethereum DEX volume saw a significant drop to $42.5 billion in March 2025, compared to $64.7 billion in February and $82.2 billion in January. Decentralized activity appears to have shifted from Ethereum to more cost-effective alternatives like Solana and Layer-2 solutions such as Base.

The Ethereum network is scheduled to deploy its Pectra upgrade on May 7, which is its first major upgrade since Dencun's activation in March 2024. Pectra is considered Ethereum's most significant software update yet, aiming to move the network towards account abstraction, raise the staking limit, improve maximum blob counts to boost rollups, and more. These changes are designed to enhance the user experience.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently proposed a new plan to boost the scalability of its execution layer by replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine's bytecode with the open-source RISC-V architecture. This proposal aims to address the network's scalability challenges and improve overall performance.