coindesk.com
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, the trading firm at the heart of this week’s crypto-industry shakeup, is reportedly making good on at least one promise – adhering to an agreement not to sell tokens associated with the BitDAO blockchain project for at least three years.
BitDAO, one of the largest decentralized autonomous organizations, confirmed Tuesday in a tweet that some 100 million BIT tokens had been transferred into “the original BIP-4 swap wallet” on the Ethereum blockchain, labeled by the website Etherscan as “Alameda Research 25.”
Alameda holds 100 million BIT tokens acquired in November last year by swapping 3.36 million FTT tokens. The token swap deal required each party to hold tokens for at least three years.
The trading firm has come under scrutiny since CoinDesk reported last week that Alameda’s balance sheet contained billions of dollars of FTT – a cryptocurrency associated with the FTX trading venue, another part of Bankman-Fried’s business empire. The concern was that there were so few players in the FTT market that, if prices for the token started to fall, Alameda likely would get stuck with the holdings.
The giant crypto exchange Binance and FTX inked a landmark deal to combine on Tuesday, but it’s not clear whether the bailout would extend to Alameda, or if the FTT tokens would have any remaining value. Like most exchange tokens, FTT does not confer any ownership rights in the affiliated venue – typically just fee discounts.
Raising liquidity?
Crypto analysts have speculated that Alameda might need to raise liquidity if the price of FTT continues to slide, and that it might seek to sell off crypto holdings that retain value, such as Solana’s SOL tokens.
Coinciding with the recent drama surrounding FTX and Alameda, BitDAO’s native token BIT plunged 20%. BitDAO asked Alameda to prove that the firm continues to hold 100 million BIT tokens and even issued a veiled threat to perhaps sell some 3.36 million FTT tokens if Alameda didn’t clarify its intent in 24 hours.
According to data on Etherscan, five transactions from Alamada Research were made on Tuesday. The largest transaction involved92 million BIT, worth around $34 million, an account on the FTX exchange.
“For community confidence, we recommend that the swapped $BIT and $FTT remain held in our respective on-chain addresses until the end of the no-sale commitment period,” BitDAO tweeted following Alemeda’s swift response.
At press time, the BIT price was still down by 16.9% to $0.34 in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. FTT was down 80.6% to about $4.2.