In a surprising move, the co-founder of Solana ($SOL), Anatoly Yakovenko, has publicly called for the redistribution of the $SOL tokens that were allocated to FTX, the crypto exchange led by Sam Bankman-Fried. In a tweet posted on September 4, Yakovenko said that he believes that FTX should return the $SOL tokens to the Solana community, arguing that the exchange has too much influence over the network and its governance.
“FTX owns too much $SOL and it’s not healthy for the ecosystem. They should redistribute it to the customers who actually use Solana, not just speculate on it,” Yakovenko wrote. FTX is one of the largest investors and supporters of Solana, having acquired 16.5 million $SOL tokens in a private sale in March 2020. At the current price of around $150 per token, FTX’s stake is worth about $2.5 billion.
According to Yakovenko, FTX’s large stake gives it too much power over the Solana network, which is supposed to be decentralized and community driven. He claimed that FTX can influence the network’s validators, developers, and projects, and potentially harm the long-term vision and growth of Solana.
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Yakovenko also suggested that FTX should follow the example of Coinbase, which recently announced that it will distribute its 9.5% stake in Polygon ($MATIC) to its customers who hold or trade $MATIC on its platform.
“Coinbase did the right thing by redistributing $MATIC to its users. FTX should do the same with $SOL. It’s only fair and it will benefit everyone in the long run,” Yakovenko said.
If you are a Coinbase user who holds Matic tokens, you might have noticed a sudden increase in your balance on September 1st, 2023. This was not a mistake or a hack, but a deliberate decision by Coinbase to redistribute Matic to its users. Here’s why. Matic is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that aims to provide faster and cheaper transactions. Matic uses a network of validators who stake Matic tokens to secure the network and process transactions. In return, they earn fees and rewards in Matic tokens.
However, on August 31st, 2023, a technical issue caused some of the validators to go offline, resulting in a temporary disruption of the network. This also affected the distribution of rewards to the validators, as some of them received more than they should have, while others received less or nothing at all.
Coinbase, as one of the largest exchanges that supports Matic, decided to intervene and correct the situation. Coinbase contacted the Matic team and agreed to redistribute the excess rewards from the overpaid validators to the underpaid or unpaid ones. This way, Coinbase ensured that all the validators received their fair share of rewards for their work.
But Coinbase didn’t stop there. Coinbase also decided to redistribute some of the excess rewards to its users who hold Matic tokens. Coinbase calculated the average reward per Matic token for the month of August and distributed it to its users proportionally to their holdings. This means that if you held 1000 Matic tokens on Coinbase on August 31st, you received an extra 50 Matic tokens on September 1st, as a bonus from Coinbase.
Coinbase explained that this was a gesture of goodwill and appreciation for its users who support Matic and other layer-2 solutions. Coinbase also stated that it believes in the potential of Matic and its role in scaling Ethereum and enabling decentralized applications. Coinbase’s decision to redistribute Matic to its users was widely praised by the crypto community, as it demonstrated Coinbase’s commitment to fairness and transparency. It also boosted the confidence and loyalty of its users, who benefited from an unexpected windfall.
FTX has not responded to Yakovenko’s tweet as of press time. However, some members of the crypto community have expressed their disagreement with Yakovenko’s proposal, saying that it is unfair to FTX and that it could damage the reputation and value of Solana. Some also pointed out that Yakovenko himself owns a large amount of $SOL tokens, as he is one of the founders and developers of Solana. According to Solscan.io, a Solana explorer, Yakovenko’s wallet holds over 38 million $SOL tokens, worth about $5.7 billion.
“Isn’t this hypocritical? You own more than twice as much $SOL as FTX and you want them to give up their stake? Why don’t you redistribute your own tokens first?” one user commented. Another user said that Yakovenko’s tweet was irresponsible and could cause panic and sell-off among Solana investors.
“This is a very bad look for Solana. You are basically telling people that FTX can dump their $SOL anytime and crash the price. How do you expect people to trust and support your project if you undermine one of your biggest partners?” another user said.