Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Trades $100 Million ETH for SOL Amid Ethereum’s Struggles
Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital has made a significant shift in its crypto portfolio, swapping $100 million worth of ether (ETH) for solana (SOL), according to on-chain data analyzed by Wu Blockchain.
Over the past two weeks, Galaxy Digital transferred 65,600 ETH, valued at approximately $105 million, to Binance, and in exchange, withdrew 752,240 SOL, worth around $98.37 million. This move comes as ETH continues to face challenges, with recent reports, including one from Standard Chartered, indicating the cryptocurrency is in “structural decline.”
Market data shows a sharp contrast in recent performance: while SOL has gained 8% over the past month, ETH has dropped nearly 20%. The shift comes amid these market conditions and concerns about ETH’s outlook, as Standard Chartered lowered its year-end price target for the asset.
On-chain analytics from Arkham show Galaxy’s holdings of ETH total $87.9 million, while its SOL holdings stand at $23.86 million. Despite this significant ETH-to-SOL swap, Galaxy Digital has yet to respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
While Ethereum faces significant hurdles, including a $50 billion loss in market cap attributed to Base, there are ongoing efforts to stabilize the network. Standard Chartered highlighted the potential for tokenized real-world assets to provide support for Ethereum.
Moreover, blockchain metrics support the shift in momentum towards Solana. Over the last three months, Solana’s decentralized exchange (DEX) volume has surpassed $500 billion, outpacing Ethereum’s DEX volume, which is less than $400 billion. Active addresses on Solana also now exceed 220 million, significantly outpacing Ethereum and its Layer-2 networks, which have about 80 million active addresses.
In response to Ethereum’s struggles, Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, proposed an idea to combat Ethereum’s “structural decline” by introducing a tax on Layer-2s. The funds collected would be used to repurchase ETH and burn it in a fully decentralized process. However, this proposal has yet to be formalized into an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP).
Meanwhile, Ethereum ETFs have seen significant outflows, with nearly $600 million leaving these products in the past two months, reflecting the broader market shift away from ETH.
