Solana Co-Founder Wants FTX’s SOL Tokens to Go to Ex-Customers

Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, a blockchain platform that rivals Ethereum, has proposed a solution for the millions of SOL tokens that are still held by FTX, the bankrupt crypto exchange. He suggests that the tokens should be distributed to the former customers of FTX, who lost their funds when the exchange collapsed last year.

Solana’s Aggressive Idea to Help FTX’s Victims

According to Solscan, a Solana explorer, FTX still has nearly seven million SOL tokens in its cold storage wallets, worth about $135 million at current prices. Yakovenko says that giving these tokens to the ex-customers of FTX would not only help them recover their losses but also benefit the Solana network by increasing its user base and decentralization.

“My wish would be to distribute the SOL to all the FTX customers directly. Probably the least bad outcome for everyone… And getting it distributed to 5 million users would benefit the network over the long term. Win-win in my honest opinion,” Yakovenko wrote on social media platform X.

Yakovenko, also known as Toly, argues that this solution would be more efficient and less costly than the ongoing legal process that FTX has been facing. He says that splitting the tokens evenly among all the users would avoid the hassle of verifying claims and dealing with lawyers.

FTX was one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world until it went bankrupt in October 2022, following a series of hacks and regulatory issues. The exchange’s collapse had a significant impact on Solana, as FTX was one of its early backers and supporters. Solana’s price plummeted from $260 to $8 in a matter of months.

Solana has since recovered some of its value, trading at $19.35 at the time of writing. The platform claims to offer faster and cheaper transactions than Ethereum, thanks to its innovative consensus mechanism and scalability features. Solana also hosts a number of decentralized applications and projects, such as Serum, Audius, and Metaplex.