• Solana drops 15% as Binance offloads 110,000 SOL to Wintermute, triggering concerns of tactical selling.
• The retail leverage purge hits hard, with $46 million in long liquidations on August 1, the biggest since Q1.
• SOL now tests critical $160 support, with risks of further downside if spot demand and macro relief don’t appear.

Solana (SOL) is ending the week with sharp drops, falling 15% since last week’s open at $188, as the bigger cryptocurrencies make a powerful red candle that negates nearly a month of steady advancement.

The move comes against the backdrop of widespread deleveraging of large tokens, but SOL has been impacted more adversely, now trading just above the crucial $160 support base.

The crypto exchange has reportedly sold nearly 110,000 SOL tokens to trading firm Wintermute. In itself, at face value, it would seemingly be a routine transfer, but the timing, accompanied by the size, suggests it was more of a tactics-based transaction.

It occurred as Solana’s price was stagnant at $180, when retail open interest was 91% net long, unambiguous proof of too much retail leverage speculating on the breakout to $200.

That optimism was quickly converted to fear, however, as risk appetite reversed sharply, with the market seeing cascading long liquidations. Solana experienced $46 million in long liquidations on August 1st, the largest one-day cleanout for the asset since Q1.

Although the purge has eliminated most of the bias, the directional bias hasn’t returned to zero. Binance’s 5-minute SOL perpetual data is still churning out 78% long dominance, indicative of the crowd remaining drastically one-sided long, despite the price action becoming decisively risk-off.

Here, the mass transfer of SOL by Binance is tactical, most likely aimed at bleeding thin liquidity, taking out late longs, and re-basing the playing ground.

Solana Tests $160 as More Downside Threatens

The sell-off has brought Solana to the key on-chain support zone in the $160 vicinity, but positioning and techs suggest the move is not necessarily complete.

Perpetual funding remains high, skewed, and biased. At the same time, open interest compression and realized loss increase, which indicates that the cleansing is in the initial phase. Another downside is the potential if the bullish spot demand doesn’t materialize or if the macro doesn’t reverse.

Most crucial to watch is the $140-150 zone, psychologically and structurally. Solana’s URPD (UTXO Realized Price Distribution) chart indicates there is concentrated realized price density here, i.e., much SOL was last moved here, which is most likely indicative of accumulation in the recent past.

This makes the $140–$150 area the high-probability reaccumulation zone, specifically for large-scale players or institutions like Binance looking to reload after dumping excess leverage.

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Solana Under Pressure as Sentiment Weakens

Unless there is some quick reversal of sentiment, which is perhaps facilitated by macro triggers or new institutional flows, Solana can remain pressured in the near term.

With crowd positioning still being out of sync, spot demand not pressing, and the technical setup continuing to be weak, the least resistance would see another check of the lower realized price bands.

In the broader context, the move this week is less about panic and more about disciplined market resetting to set the stage for healthier positioning and subsequent reaccumulation, but only after the leverage has washed out in a one-hundred-percent measure.

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