Whales, Pump.fun drive SOL’s worst weekly drop

SOL fell roughly 12% over the past week, the steepest weekly decline among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. On-chain analytics show multiple large holders reduced positions and increased sales this month.

One wallet that originally staked 991,079 SOL more than five years ago sold about 30,000 SOL recently. That wallet began unwinding positions about a year ago and has sold roughly 965,274 SOL, valued at about $137.7 million; it still holds around 381,140 SOL in staking positions, worth roughly $32.4 million.

A long-term holder using the handle GyBRmk sold 21,911 SOL, about $1.85 million at the time. That account accumulated about 20,200 SOL at an average near $144, earned 1,711 SOL in staking rewards (about $145,000), and realized an estimated $1.05 million loss on the sale.

Pump.fun, a meme-coin launchpad that paused SOL outflows for nine months, resumed sales. Analytics show it deposited 174,408 SOL, roughly $14.8 million, to the Kraken exchange and likely sold 117,877 SOL for about $9.96 million. A newly created wallet withdrew the same amount from Kraken, sold it for about 9.96 million USDC at an average price of $84.52 per SOL, and returned the stablecoins to the exchange. Analytics also record that Pump.fun sold about 4.19 million SOL, roughly $757 million, between May 19, 2024 and Aug. 12, 2025 at an average price near $181.

Institutional filings show Goldman Sachs fully exited its spot Solana and XRP ETF positions in the first quarter of 2026, according to its 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several large holders had staked portions of their SOL before selling other amounts. Staked balances can remain linked to a wallet while other tokens are sold, which can complicate on-chain tracing of long-term holder activity.

Macro and geopolitical uncertainty coincided with the sales and contributed to a risk-off tone across crypto markets during the week.