Pantera Capital eyes $250 million SOL purchase from FTX estate

Pantera Capital recently announced it is raising funds to acquire up to $250 million worth of Solana (SOL) tokens at a discounted rate from the bankrupt FTX exchange’s estate.

According to information obtained by Bloomberg, Pantera is launching the Pantera Solana Fund to facilitate the purchase of SOL tokens from FTX’s holdings. The firm aims to acquire the tokens at a discounted price of $59.95 per SOL, approximately 57% lower than the current market price of around $142 per token. Pantera claims that the FTX estate holds roughly 41 million SOL tokens, worth around $5.4 billion, representing 10% of the total Solana token supply.

Notably, the fundraising program specifies that prospective investors are required to agree to a vesting period of up to four years, during which they would be unable to move out the tokens. The fund is also subject to a 0.75% management fee and a 10% performance cut.

FTX reaches ‘in principle’ agreement with BlockFi

This follows a recent development from FTX, in which the exchange, alongside Alameda Research, has agreed to an ‘in principle’ settlement with BlockFi. A court filing dated March 6 at a New Jersey bankruptcy court unveiled an in-principle agreement between BlockFi and FTX-Alameda. Still pending court approval, the settlement would grant BlockFi about $874 million, and all charges made by FTX will be dropped.

Once approved, BlockFi will receive $185 million from FTX and $689 million from Alameda Research. The former is the total amount of customer assets held by BlockFi at the time of its collapse, while the latter is the total amount of loans made by Alameda. The agreement also contains a priority $250 million secured claim for BlockFi once FTX’s reorganization plan is approved. 

Both BlockFi and Pantera are investors in Blockfolio, a portfolio company that was acquired by FTX in 2020. This investment has resulted in limited exposure to FTX for Pantera Capital, with the FTX exposure from the Blockfolio investment constituting roughly 2% of the firm’s total assets under management (AUM).

Restructuring and new funding prospects

The sale of FTX’s discounted SOL holdings to Pantera could potentially provide the funds needed by the FTX estate, enabling the liquidators to begin repaying the investors of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange and paying out to affected users. Notably, FTX is reportedly seeking new ways to recover funds for creditors, recently receiving permission to unload more than $1 billion in shares in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic.

Meanwhile, the Solana (SOL) token has experienced notable price movements, rising 11.7% in the past 24 hours (estimate) to trade at $142.45 and gaining over 10% on the weekly chart, according to data from CoinGecko.

The proposed Pantera Solana Fund aims to capitalize on the discounted FTX holdings, presenting a potentially attractive investment opportunity amid the restructuring efforts of the FTX estate.