• Bitcoin and Ethereum have led the altcoin market in bearish sentiment in the past four weeks, with increased selling pressure expected to trigger a significant selloff.
• FTX is expected to obtain approval to liquidate up to $200M of its crypto holdings every week, with the Solana ecosystem the largest culprit.

After closing the fourth week in an indecisive outlook, the cryptocurrency market is about to face major updates though could trigger a heightened selloff during this week. Notably, FTX is expected to receive approval to liquidate up to $1.8 billion of digital assets on Wednesday, September 13.

According to on-chain data, FTX and its sister investment firm Alameda Research have over $3.5 billion in digital assets, although some like FTT are largely illiquid. Nonetheless, the former crypto empire held a significant portion of its balance sheet in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin (DOGE), among others. 

The imminent FTX liquidation order largely overshadows the recent crypto positive news including a potential spot Ethereum ETF in the United States, and also the Grayscale Investments with against the U.S. SEC.

Closer Look at FTX Incoming Crypto Sell Orders 

With FTX creditors pushing for a fast liquidation process to avoid high legal and operational costs, crypto investors are expected to absorb sell orders amounting to about $200 million per week in various digital assets.

Notably, FTX holds over $655 million in Solana, after the exchange purchased over 47 million SOL coins from the Solana Foundation during its early stages. However, it is worth noting that a significant portion of the FTX’s Solana bag is currently locked with a vesting period that ends between 2025 and 2027.

The distressed cryptocurrency exchange holds about $268 million in Bitcoin, $90 million in Ethereum (ETH), $67 million in Aptos (APT), approximately $42 million in Dogecoin (DOGE), $31 million in TON coin, and about $29 million in XRP. The September 13 liquidation order will be a huge turning point for most crypto price action, after experiencing four weeks of horizontal consolidation.

More Recovery Ahead

The FTX team led by CEO John Ray III is expected to recover more digital assets, especially from third-party Web3 platforms. Additionally, the FTX legal team has continued to sue different entities that were offered creditors money by the previous administration. For instance, the crypto exchange has sued LayerZero, an omnichain interoperability platform, in a bid to claw back $21 million. Interestingly, FTX is also reviewing promotional fees offered by former employees led by SBF to celebrities like Naomi Osaka, and Shaquille O’Neal, among others.

Price Action

Most of the digital assets affected by the FTX liquidation process are expected to drop by between 20 percent and 30 percent before the end of September. Furthermore, September of the pre-halving year has been identified as a bearish month for the crypto industry, based on historical data trends. As a result, Bitcoin price is likely to retest the support/resistance level around $20k, Solana price could drop sub $10, and Dogecoin could easily hit $0.04.