Whales are selling Solana (SOL), Pump.fun is cashing out again

Solana (SOL) is once again pressured by whale capitulation, as more large holders are moving their tokens to exchanges. Wallets identified to belong to Pump.fun also sent SOL to the open market twice in the past 24 hours. 

Solana (SOL) whales are divesting their holdings again, putting more pressure on the token. In the past few days, SOL changed hands between whales, as some sold, while others accumulated at a lower range. SOL is being divested, along with older Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, as the bearish market sentiment continues to pressure all crypto prices. 

SOL sank back to $104.86 as the crypto market reacted to new of US tariffs placed on China. The Solana ecosystem also shows signs of DEXs activity and meme trading, but the potential for an ongoing sideways trading or additional losses is pressuring whales to cash out. 

Several big entities sold, some even absorbing losses. The recent selling follows April’s period of peak SOL unlocks, putting additional pressure on the market as early investors choose to lock in gains. In the past week, whales also sold SOL after receiving the most recent round of unlocks. 

Whales shed SOL at a loss

Some of the whales were ready to sell SOL at a loss, instead of holding into an uncertain market. In one case, three wallets belonging to a single entity unstaked a total of 168,498 SOL. If sold, the entity could absorb up to $11.38M in losses. For now, one of the wallets holds 40,359.3 SOL, with the other one holding 41,369.29 SOL. The biggest wallet has 86,772.52 SOL, in addition to small-scale token activities. 

The wallets show that the unstaking and linear unlocking of SOL often create new whale wallets with the potential to sell. The recent whale transactions are taking profits, as market analysts are wary of another SOL dip as low as $80.

Another entity unlocked 159,028 SOL, selling around 60,000 SOL through decentralized protocols, retaining around 99,000 SOL. In the past day, a whale with similar holdings shed 89,734 SOL, retaining a minimal SOL balance. 

SOL is still seen as potentially sinking under $100. Despite the on-chain economic activity, multiple apps may need to sell SOL and lock in gains. Additionally, SOL open interest fell to a six-month low of $1.9B as traders de-risked their positions. Long positions still dominate at 75%, but may potentially trigger new liquidations if SOL dips to a lower range again.

Pump.fun returns to selling

Pump.fun still produces between $1M and $2M in daily fees, as meme token launches accelerated. The platform also receives additional trading fees from PumpSwap. DEXs activity and token creation continue, as Solana turned into the main network for tokenization. 

During the recently turbulent market, Pump.fun has been cashing out more often. In the past day, the platform sent two significant transactions to Kraken. Four addresses, identified as belonging to Pump.fun, sent 84,358 SOL to Kraken on April 9. Previously, Pump.fun sent out a similar transaction of 84,358 SOL, valued at $9.3M, with the potential to liquidate the recent gains. 

Pump.fun has taken in over 1.77M in SOL since the start of 2025, valued at over $310M. The platform has sold at a much higher range, and has only partially staked some of the SOL for passive income. However, Pump.fun is seen as mostly extracting value from the Solana ecosystem. 

SOL, as a liquidity token used for fees, has been facing selling pressure almost constantly. Currently, Circle is still growing the supply of stablecoin on the Solana chain, to use USDC as the main trading token and source of liquidity. Solana carries over $12.44B in stablecoin liquidity, though the native SOL token is still widely used in meme token launches and trading.