Solana Whales Boost Bearish Options Activity on Deribit Ahead of Token Unlock

2 min

Deribit's options market for Solana's SOL token has seen increased activity, particularly from whales making bearish bets as the price declines ahead of a multi-billion dollar token unlock.

Last week, SOL block trades totaled $32.39 million, nearly 25% of total options activity at $130.74 million.
This marks the second-highest proportion of block trades to total activity on record.
Block trades are significant privately negotiated transactions that minimize market price impact.
The recent surge favored put options, with almost 80% of block-trade volume in puts, compared to 40% for BTC and 37.5% for ETH.
SOL's price has fallen 46% to $160 in five weeks, leading to decreased activity on the Solana blockchain.
A major token unlock on March 1 will release 11.2 million SOL tokens, valued at approximately $2.07 billion, representing 2.29% of total supply.
This event could lead to volatility, accounting for nearly 59% of SOL’s daily spot trading volume.

Traders are hedging against potential price declines through put options and may look to capitalize on volatility for yield generation.