Solana Holdings Map: Who Takes the Big Pump Dividends?

Original Title: "Solana has recently seen a big pump, but where is the money actually?"

Source: Biteye

####Why is studying the holdings of institutions important?

The crypto market is moving quickly, so who is buying? How much have they bought? Who is selling? Where is the selling pressure concentrated?

Which funds are locked up for a long time, and which funds might flow out at any time?

These issues determine the price elasticity of the token and the rise and fall space for the next cycle.

####Staking, accounting for about 66.9%

According to the data from Solana compass, the total supply of SOL is 610 million.

As of September 16, approximately 408 million SOL has been staked across the Solana network, accounting for 66.9% of the total supply. This is essentially made up of staked retail investors, DeFi protocols, publicly listed company treasuries, foundations, and institutional whales.

In contrast, the staking rate of ETH is only 40%. This makes SOL one of the mainstream public chains with the highest staking rate in the crypto market, meaning limited selling pressure and strong price support.

####Pledge Pattern Concentration Analysis:

There are also some highlights in the staking validator landscape, according to everstake data:

1. The top three validators, Helius, Binance Staking, and Galaxy, collectively control over 26%, with Helius alone holding 13.22 million SOL (accounting for 9.76%).

2. Next are several nodes such as Ledger by Figment, Kiln, Coinbase, Everstake, each with a share in the range of 3–6%.

This means that the staking pattern of Solana presents a "head concentration + long tail dispersion": large institutional nodes have significant influence, but overall, a certain level of decentralization is still maintained, avoiding complete dominance by a single force.

Note: The data in the pie chart below mainly shows the distribution of top validators and does not equal the total staking amount of 408 million SOL in the entire network.

####DeFi protocol

According to DeFiLlama data, the total TVL of Solana is approximately 52.89 million SOL. However, it is important to note that a significant portion of this comes from LST derivatives (such as JitoSOL, mSOL, bSOL), and not all of it is SOL. This part of the data also overlaps with 66.9% of the staking data across the network, meaning it is not an independently added locked amount.

####Foundation

The SOL held by the Solana Foundation and Solana Labs is mainly placed in staking accounts, which includes 408 million SOL that have been staked, with the specific proportion unknown.

####FTX, Alameda

The special thing about SOL is that there is a "historical legacy disk," which refers to the chips of FTX and Alameda.

During the early ecosystem development of Solana from 2020 to 2022, FTX and Alameda were one of the most important supporters, buying and holding SOL on a large scale. After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, these assets were custodied and entered liquidation proceedings. Their future unlocking, auctioning, and even over-the-counter trading will affect the supply and demand balance of SOL.

Since November 2023, FTX and Alameda related staking addresses have redeemed and transferred a total of 8.98 million SOL.

Currently, approximately 4.18 million SOL (accounting for 0.69%) are still staked on-chain, with gradual unlocking until 2028.

This part is seen by the market as potential selling pressure, which may lead to price fluctuations.

####public company, accounting for about 1.59% (unpledged portion)

According to the data from Strategic SOL Reserve (as of September 16), a total of 17 entities have established SOL treasury reserves, totaling 17.112 million SOL, accounting for 2.8% of the current total supply.

Among these positions, the number of staked SOL is approximately 7.4 million SOL, accounting for about 1.2% of the total supply.

Companies with leading positions in holdings:

• Forward Industries (FORD): 6.822 million SOL, approximately 1.63 billion USD

• Sharps Technology (STSS): 2.14 million SOL, approximately 510 million USD

• DeFi Development Corp (DFDV): 202.8 million SOL, approximately 480 million USD

• Upexi (UPXI): 2 million SOL, approximately 470 million USD

• Galaxy Digital: 1.35 million SOL, approximately 320 million USD

In the total pool split, this part only counts the un-staked 9.71 million SOL (approximately 1.59%), avoiding double counting with the staked amount across the entire network.

####ETF/ETP, accounting for about 1.73% (unpledged portion)

ETP (Exchange-Traded Product), essentially, is a product traded on the exchange. The fund shares listed. The following ETP will directly purchase and hold SOL spot, and then issue corresponding shares for circulation on the trading platform.

1. 21Shares ASOL has a scale of approximately 1.53 billion USD.

2. CoinShares SLNC has a scale of approximately 699 million USD.

Based on the estimate of the range of $200–$260, it corresponds to a holding of about 8.57–11.15 million SOL, accounting for 1.41% – 1.83% of the total supply.

Although the traditional spot SOL ETF is still awaiting regulatory approval, the REX-Osprey SOL + Staking ETF (SSK) was launched in July 2025, becoming the first ETF in the United States to combine spot SOL with on-chain staking rewards.

As of mid-September, the fund size is approximately $274 million. About 56.7% of this is in spot SOL, estimated to correspond to approximately 598,000 to 777,000 SOL based on a range of $200–$260.

In total, the three parties hold approximately 9.17–11.92 million SOL in spot positions, accounting for 1.50%–1.96% of the total supply, with an average of about 1.73%. The nature of this capital is more biased towards long-term stability.

####Others, accounting for 29.78%

Whales/Trading Platform

According to CoinCarp Rich List data (as of September 16), a single whale address holds over 5 million SOL (about 1% of total supply). Overall, Solana currently has about 9.15 million addresses, with the top 100 addresses accounting for only 22.8%, indicating limited concentration at the top, while most chips are distributed among long-tail users, staking pools, and trading platforms.

It should be noted that whale addresses are not necessarily all "retail investors", which include early VCs, trading platforms, dormant wallets, etc. Additionally, there is some overlap between whale holdings and staking, and many whale chips have already been staked.

retail investors

Distributed but in large numbers, it is the basic support of the market.

Undisclosed Institution

Some funds or venture capital hold it, but it has not entered the financial statements.

Government Holdings

As of now, there are no publicly disclosed government or sovereign funds that directly hold SOL.

####Celebrities call for positions

Beyond the funds, there is also the narrative. Who is calling for a rise in SOL?

Matt Hougan, the Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise, recently emphasized in an article that Solana is in a crucial window for ETP approval and the rise of corporate SOL treasuries, a combination that has historically led to significant price rises for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal @RaoulGMI stated that Solana's "long-term structure is stupidly bullish," expressing a long-term bullish outlook on SOL.

The well-known cryptocurrency trader Ansem @blknoiz06 recently expressed bullish comments regarding "if the treasury company funds enter the Solana DeFi, it will be extremely bullish."

Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz bets that Solana will rise 150% in the next five years, believing that any short-term price movements are just noise.

From position structure to narrative level, SOL has entered the "institutional buying driven + market bullish" phase. Combined with the Hyperliquid liquidation chart, the current price is at 238 dollars:

First target level: $250 – $275 – the upper first layer of short position liquidation zone, once broken, it may trigger a short-term acceleration.

Second target level: 275 – 315 USD——the area with the highest accumulation of short positions, a breakthrough may lead to stronger bearish pressure.

With the resonance of ETF/ETP and treasury companies, the market's expectations for Solana will also be restructured. If the capital flow continues to be sustained, it is possible for SOL to hit the $300-$400 range in a bull market.