Overview

FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange built by traders, for traders. FTX offers innovative products including industry-first derivatives, options, volatility products and leveraged tokens. We strive to develop a platform robust enough for professional trading firms and intuitive enough for first-time users [1].

Alameda Research is a leading principal trading firm, working as a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm that provides liquidity in cryptocurrency and digital assets markets [2].

The Alameda Research have tried to buy the FTT tokens available on Binance but Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) isn’t interested in selling his company’s FTX Tokens in an OTC deal with Alameda [3]. For this reason, the FTT token price started to crash and the panic come to the FTT holders.

One of the main affected chains has been Solana because of was one of the main projects considered by the company.

One of the aftereffects of the FTX meltdown for Solana was the need to fork (replace) Serum, the OG order book on Solana due to key control risk. The Solana defi community worked together to create OpenBook.

Methods

In this dashboard, we will try to analysis what has been happening in the Solana. The idea is to analyze how has Solana defi responded to the risks that Serum suddenly presented and has there been any traction on Openbook. The main goal is to examine the defi ecosystem since and how has the recent tumult surrounding FTX and Alameda impacted SOL and the Solana ecosystem. \n \n Then, the idea is to explore if the activity increased or decreased and also try to find some possible factor, dApp or whatever that may be the affected by this event.

The main metrics evaluated are:

• Orderbook vs Serum statistics

  • Transactions, new users, active users, liquidity

• Defi events both global and by platform

• Defi users both global and by platform

• Staking events

• Number of stakers

• Transfers from and to CEX

• Transferers and receptors to/from CEX

In this first charts we can see the global DeFi activity. In blue we have the data before the FTX/Alameda news and in orange the data after the news.

In the first chart we can see how the events started to decrease just after the news, passing from around 9M to below 5M these last days. However, the amount of users interacting with DeFi platforms spiked during the the days after the FTX/Alameda news.

DeFi activity analysis

If we take a look at the numbers by platforms, we can see how the main cause of the decrease of the activity is due to the activity on Serum and Jupiter has decreased.

On the one hand, the amount of events on Serum has dropped from around 5M to less than 2M. Something similar has occurred with Jupiter but in a lower scale, passing from around 1M to less than 300k events per day.

In terms of users, in this case it seems that the general activity was increasing over the days before the news. When the news come true, the events spiked but afterthat the activity started to drop. Mainly, the activity on Jupiter suddenly dropped just after the news. We can see that the red part practically has been null over the past few days. However, we can see how other platforms have been also affected and their activity also decreased, such as Serum again.

Staking activity analysis

Considering the staking activity, we can see how in terms of actions the situation is clear. The activity has spiked over the past days just after the news. The number of actions practically has been doubled. If we consider the averages of each metric, we can see how in the case of daily average transactions, it has increased from 1113 to more than 2.5k, while the amount of average users also increased from 894 to almost 2k.

Here the question is… are users delegating or undelegating during these days when the activity has spiked? Looking at the current bear market and the sudden drop on the SOL price, we can corroborate that what has happened here is that the panic on the people has been shown and the undelegating activiy spiked.

Transfers from/to CEX

In this final section, there is a comparison between the activity from and to CEX before and after the FTX/Alameda event. In both cases, we can see a decrease on the transfers activity during the days after the news. So we can corroborate that after the FTX/Alameda event, the activity on the CEX has decreased. However, we can see as well that the major decrement on the activity was with the transfers to CEX, that has been dropping days prior to the news.

Key insights

• Since Launch, the number of transactions on Orderbook has increased, reaching almost half a million transactions per day. However, since the 15th of November it seems that the number of transactions has remained stable. So far more than 2.5M transactions have been made. On the other hand, we can see the evolution of Serum that just since last November 12th, the number has plummeted and the number of daily transactions now seems to be very low compared to the days before the crash.
• In Orderbook they have also increased, but there are not many, the maximum is less than 300 per day. In Serum we can see how the number of new users increased during the days of panic, but then suddenly started to decrease and the negative dynamic continued. If we look at the active users something similar is happening.
• Orderbook liquidity seems to be increasing since its inception but in waves. It seems that the peak is getting higher and the last one reached more than 300k USD per day. On the other hand, in Serum it is the other way around, since the day of the crash liquidity started to drop drastically until it reached lower values than in Openbook.
• The DeFi events started to decrease just after the news, passing from around 9M to below 5M these last days. However, the amount of users interacting with DeFi platforms spiked during the the days after the FTX/Alameda news.
• The main cause of the DeFi decrease of the activity is due to the drop in the Serum events and that the major of the users stopped their interactions with Jupiter.
• Other platforms have been also affected and their activity also decreased a little bit, such as Serum.
• The amount of events on Serum has dropped from around 5M to less than 2M. Something similar has occurred with Jupiter but in a lower scale, passing from around 1M to less than 300k events per day.
• The staking activity has spiked over the past days just after the news. The number of actions practically has been doubled. Looking at the current bear market and the sudden drop on the SOL price, we can corroborate that what has happened here is that the panic on the people has been shown and the undelegating activiy spiked.
• We can see a decrease on the transfers from/to CEX during the days after teh FTX/Alameda news.
• We can see as well that the major decrement on the activity was with the transfers to CEX, that has been dropping days prior to the news.

Orderbook vs Serum analysis

In this first section we can see a detailed and comparative analysis of the evolution of Serum and the new Orderbook since its launch. What we can observe in these graphs is the global activity, both daily and accumulated transactions, as well as the active users and new users that interact with these contracts. Finally, liquidity has also been studied.

As far as the number of transactions is concerned, on the one hand, we can see that since Launch, the number of transactions on Orderbook has increased, reaching almost half a million transactions per day. However, since the 15th of November it seems that the number of transactions has remained stable. So far more than 2.5M transactions have been made. On the other hand, we can see the evolution of Serum that just since last November 12th, the number has plummeted and the number of daily transactions now seems to be very low compared to the days before the crash.

As far as new users are concerned, we can observe that in Orderbook they have also increased, but there are not many, the maximum is less than 300 per day. In Serum we can see how the number of new users increased during the days of panic, but then suddenly started to decrease and the negative dynamic continued. If we look at the active users something similar is happening.

Finally, as far as liquidity is concerned, we can see that Orderbook seems to be increasing since its inception but in waves. It seems that the peak is getting higher and the last one reached more than 300k USD per day. On the other hand, in Serum it is the other way around, since the day of the crash liquidity started to drop drastically until it reached lower values than in Openbook.