UNI and SUSHI’s Response to FTX’s $10 Million Token Transfer: A Deep Dive

Insolvent cryptocurrency exchange FTX has transferred about $10 million of its recovered digital assets from the Solana network to the leading smart contract eco Ethereum since the end of last month. With FTX in the process of being liquidated to make creditors while again, the transferred digital assets are expected to be liquidated, hence raising fear of increased sell pressure in an already strained crypto market. Moreover, Bitcoin and Ethereum prices have broken their YTD bullish momentum and now face more short-term sell pressure

According to the latest crypto market data, Bitcoin and Ethereum prices traded around $25.68k and $1,629 respectively on Tuesday during the New York session.

Effects of FTX Assets Transfer from Solana to Ethereum Network

Solana gained its vast reputation from its early marketing strategy of being an Ethereum killer. The mission was, however, made more severe following the collapse of FTX and its sister investment firm Alameda Research. Notably, the FTX cryptocurrency exchange was a major supporter of the Solana eco by providing liquidity for the SPL tokens. As a result, FTX was left holding a significant amount of SPL tokens after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States

Similarly, FTX was holding a significant amount of its assets in Ethereum, hence making its liquidation process a risk for the Ether price action in the short term

Long-Term Beneficiaries of the FTX Transfer from Sol to Ether

The decision by the current FTX administration – led by John J. Ray III, Chief utive Officer and Chief Restructuring Officer of the FTX Debtors – to transfer about $10 million from Solana to Ethereum had a physical and psychological impact on respective DeFi projects. On the top list, the FTX transfer from Solana to Ethereum meant that liquidity was available on both networks, but the latter was more stable for institutional investors.

Top automated market makers (AMM) on the Ethereum network – Uniswap (UNI) and SushiSwap (SUSHI) – are expected to greatly benefit from the recent gesture from FTX. According to the latest crypto market data provided by Binance-backed Coinmarketcap, Uniswap (UNI) traded around $4.34, down approximately 1.4 percent in the past 24 hours

On the other hand, SushiSwap (SUSHI) traded around $0.577, up approximately 2.3 percent in the past 24 hours. Worth noting that SushiSwap was developed through a hard fork on Uniswap in a bid to diversify the AMM market and also add additional features not previously present on Uniswap.

With FTX holding over $5 billion in liquid digital assets, there is a high chance that the currency administration will gap on existing AMMs on Ethereum to increase the efficiency of liquidation and reduce friction with OTC transactions.