Solana’s SOL token is on the verge of a potential 6% price swing as large investors, known as whales, have sold off their holdings ahead of the U.S. non-farm payroll (NFP) report scheduled for later today.
According to Volmex’s one-day implied volatility index (IV) for SOL, the index currently sits at an annualized rate of 109.70%, indicating an expected 24-hour price volatility of 5.74%. This level of movement is considered moderate, especially in comparison to the 6% or higher volatility that the cryptocurrency has seen since early March.
Despite the expected volatility, the market is not anticipating anything out of the ordinary.
Whale selling
Data from Lookonchain shows that several whales have unstaked and sold SOL amounting to $46.3 million. While large sell-offs by whales typically lead to bearish price action, the amount sold today only represents 0.97% of the cryptocurrency’s 24-hour trading volume of $4.7 billion.
As a result, SOL is currently trading around $116, with a recent low of $112 on Thursday. Overall, the cryptocurrency has been in a downtrend since reaching a high of $295 on January 19.
Focus on payrolls
The upcoming U.S. jobs data, set to be released at 12:30 GMT, is expected to show a gain of 130,000 jobs in March, a decrease from February’s 151,000 and well below the 12-month average of 162,300, according to FactSet.
The forecasted unemployment rate for March is 4.2%, the highest since November and up from February’s 4.1%. Average hourly earnings are predicted to have increased by 0.3% month-on-month, matching February’s rate.
A weaker-than-expected jobs report could lead to renewed expectations of interest rate cuts, potentially boosting risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
