Solana Whale Realizes $153M Profit After 4-Year Staking
A Solana address holding over 1 million tokens has realized a substantial profit of more than $153 million after a four-year staking strategy. This significant gain was highlighted by blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, which identified the wallet address of a whale that staked nearly 1 million Solana (SOL) tokens in 2021. At the time of staking, each Solana token was valued at around $27, resulting in an initial investment of approximately $27 million.
Over the course of four years, the whale's staked Solana holdings grew to 1.29 million tokens. With the appreciation of Solana to about $140 per token, the value of the whale's holdings increased to approximately $180 million. On April 22, the whale began to offload a portion of the stash, unstaking 100,000 SOL tokens worth about $14 million and transferring them to Binance. This action is often interpreted as an intent to sell.
Despite the recent offloading, the whale still holds 1.19 million Solana tokens, valued at around $166 million. Given the initial investment of $27 million, the total unrealized profit for the address stands at approximately $153 million. This event underscores the potential for significant returns in the cryptocurrency market through long-term staking strategies.
This particular staking play by the Solana whale follows another notable event earlier in April, where four wallets that staked $37 million in tokens in 2021 had their tokens unlocked. This event, reported by Arkham Intelligence, was described as the largest single-day unlock of staked SOL. During the unlock, the tokens were valued at over $206 million, with about $50 million in tokens subsequently sold.
The recent activities of Solana whales have also had an impact on the broader staking market. On April 20, the Solana network briefly surpassed Ethereum in staked token value, reaching over $53 billion. However, Ethereum quickly regained its top position. The community's reaction to this event was mixed, with some viewing it as bullish for Solana and others seeing it as bearish.
