If You Invested $1,000 In Solana When Sam Bankman-Fried Was Arrested, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

Cryptocurrency Solana SOL/USD has soared in value in recent days, driven by companies filing to launch Solana ETFs, the continued strength of meme coins, and optimism for the crypto sector.

On Nov. 21, Solana hit an all-time high, which comes years after the cryptocurrency was nearly left for dead and investors fled after former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested.

Here’s a look back at the fall of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s arrest, which may have been a good starting point to buy Solana.

What Happened: Solana's all-time high comes with meme cryptocurrencies once again surging in popularity and optimism that ETFs based on the fourth-largest crypto could be approved similarly to Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD ETFs.

With a market capitalization of $121.0 billion, Solana ranks fourth trailing only Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoin Tether.

While Solana now trades over $200 a coin, the crypto was one of many that fell on previous news surrounding FTX, including the company's bankruptcy and the arrest of founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

On Dec. 12, 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas after criminal charges were announced against him by U.S. prosecutors.

He was later found guilty on seven counts of criminal fraud in November 2023. The announcement of the verdict initially caused a decline in the prices of several major cryptocurrencies.

Among the charges against the former FTX CEO were wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The former FTX CEO was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024.

Read Also: If You Invested $100 In Dogecoin When The Meme Coin Launched, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today

Investing $1,000 in Solana: The bankruptcy of FTX and arrest of Bankman-Fried were among the top negative headlines for the cryptocurrency sector over the last year.

Solana is one of many cryptocurrencies that saw high volatility around those events. The cryptocurrency was also linked closely to FTX, given the cryptocurrency platform’s former large position in the coin and Bankman-Fried once telling a user on Twitter, now known as X, that he would buy all the Solana coins he could at $3 each.

For an investor in Solana, the arrest of Bankman-Fried could have been an ideal entry point, considering the cryptocurrency's price drop and subsequent rebound following the event.

On Dec. 12, 2022, Solana traded as high as $13.46. A $1,000 investment in the coin at its daily high could have acquired 74.29 SOL. The $1,000 investment would be worth $18,924.63 today. This represents a potential return of 1,792.5% over the past nearly two years.

For comparison, the S&P 500 ETF Trust, which tracks the S&P 500 stock market index, is up only 49.2% over the same time period.

While it remains to be seen if Solana can continue moving higher, investors who recognized that Bankman-Fried’s arrest and trial would be short-term bearish for cryptocurrency would have been pleasantly rewarded.

Read Next:

• If You Bought $1 Worth Of Bitcoin At Launch, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today

This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated.

Photo: Skorzewiak/Shutterstock.com