On October 28, 2025, SkyAI, which was once seen as heavily tied to the Solana ecosystem, announced that it had reached an agreement with key shareholder Bastion Trading regarding a stock buyback plan, with Bastion shifting from strong opposition to supporting a buyback price of $3 per share. Almost simultaneously, SkyAI confirmed that it had sold all 2 million SOL at an average price of $107 and explicitly stated that it would not buy SOL again after completing this round of stock buybacks, shifting its treasury strategy from holding tokens to using cash to repurchase equity, which implies it has decided to pull risks and exposure from public chain assets back into company equity. Meanwhile, on the on-chain side, Solflare, one of the main wallets and staking entry points in the Solana ecosystem, disclosed that a security incident occurred with its partnered staking service provider, affecting the key security of relevant validators. Affected validators temporarily halted staking rewards, but the SOL entrusted by users remained in users' controlled staking accounts and was not transferred or misappropriated. Solflare then stated it would guide users to migrate their stakes to new validators through application updates, with rewards resuming once new stakes became activated; as the treasury liquidates positions and locks in shareholder returns on one side, the underlying staking segment reveals key risks on the other, forcing a recalibration of trust coordinates in Solana within the same time frame.
Liquidation of 2 million and buyback compromise
At the same time Solflare was busy fixing the staking chain, AiCoin data showed that SkyAI, once considered one of the deepest treasury ties to the Solana ecosystem, pushed all its last chips to the market — the previously accumulated 2 million SOL had been completely sold around October 28, 2025, with an average transaction price locked in at about $107. In external disclosures, this liquidation was described as exceptionally decisive, lacking any reserved wording like “buy the dip,” but rather emphasized: after completing the current stock buyback plan, there would be no further buybacks (purchases) of SOL in the future.
On the same day, SkyAI reached a settlement with key shareholder Bastion Trading regarding the stock buyback plan, with Bastion, previously firmly opposed to the price, switching to agree and support the company's buyback of shares at $3 per share. This change in position indicates a unified stance at the governance level of the company. It is also at this point that SkyAI pulled back all the risk budget originally associated with public chain assets into its own equity: the priority of the treasury shifted from holding SOL to repurchasing its own shares, sending a clear signal to the market, not just a single signal of “bearish on Solana,” but rather a clear ordering of shareholder returns prior to exposure on public chains.
Post-liquidation treasury narrative of Solana
In the narrative of the Solana ecosystem, SkyAI has always been viewed as a treasury company "on the chain side," holding a considerable position in SOL for a long time, serving as a kind of implicit endorsement of public chain assets. According to AiCoin data, SkyAI previously confirmed it had sold all 2 million SOL at an average price of $107, and in official statements, linked this liquidation to the stock buyback plan as part of the same capital operation logic — selling SOL to free up ammunition for the $3 per share buyback, while explicitly stating that no more SOL would be bought after the completion of the buyback. This combination of actions was naturally interpreted by the market as the institution choosing to "lock in the value of the company shares" over "continuing to hold Solana assets."
This realigning of priorities lessens the previous simplistic narrative that "institutions will have a long-term, passive holding of SOL," but does not equate to a direct declaration that Solana has fallen out of favor with all institutions. Existing information does not show that SkyAI's sell-off was directly tied to a specific price point or regulatory shock, but rather seems to be a company-level decision centered around shareholder returns: pulling back the risk budget originally exposed to the public chain back to controllable equity assets. Therefore, for the institutional narrative regarding Solana, SkyAI’s exit serves as an important sample point — reminding the market that even treasury companies deeply tied to the ecosystem can adjust positions within specific time windows due to self-assessment of their balance sheets, rather than acting as a direction pointer applicable to the entire institutional collective.
Solflare staking service provider issues, but user funds are secure
At the same time SkyAI was pulling positions from the chain back to its balance sheet, another trust link in the Solana ecosystem was tightened. As one of the main wallets and staking service entrances in the Solana ecosystem, Solflare disclosed that a security incident occurred with its partnered staking service provider, affecting the key security held by some related validators. Out of concern for further risks, these affected validators immediately suspended the issuance of staking rewards; the most direct impact felt by ordinary users was that the benefits originally arriving at regular intervals suddenly "interrupted," rather than the assets themselves being drawn away.
Solflare repeatedly emphasized in its statement the boundaries: the risk lay with the staking service provider and the validators' keys, while the SOL entrusted by users remained in their respective staking accounts, controlled by the users' own keys. The event description did not indicate any assets being transferred or lost. In order to "disassemble" this trust chain from the damaged node, Solflare stated it would guide users to migrate their original stakes to new validators through application updates, and upon activation of the new stake on-chain, staking rewards would return to normal issuance. In contrast, as SkyAI opted to lock in shareholder returns with equity buybacks while Solflare switched trust objects in frontend products, what is currently exposed in Solana seems more like a vulnerability at the service provider level rather than a collapse of asset security at the protocol level.
Infrastructure turmoil shadows over Solana
This security incident occurring at the level of staking service providers and validators pulled the "decentralized" trust back to a few entrances. The SOL that users entrusted was always controlled by their own keys, and the on-chain staking accounts were not misused, but the issue arose on the service provider side responsible for operating the validators and aggregating delegations: once the risk of validator key exposure arises, they have to halt staking rewards; while users do not suffer direct asset losses, they must passively bear the pressure of interrupted earnings and uncertainty. This gap of "seeing asset safety, but not process safety" could slowly erode some users’ trust in the entire staking link in gradual staking scenarios.
What truly needs observation is how Solflare turns this incident into a practice of "redistributing risk." It plans to upgrade the application to guide users to migrate their delegations originally concentrated on affected validators to new validator nodes using frontend prompts and a one-click migration process. This complete cycle from halting rewards to reactivation will test Solana's staking infrastructure's self-healing capabilities after failure as well as whether users are willing to give this delegation mechanism another chance after a fracture in trust.
Dual signals and observation of Solana's on-chain direction
SkyAI completed the liquidation of 2 million SOL and locked in an average selling price of around $107 around October 28, and when reaching a settlement with Bastion Trading regarding the stock buyback at $3 per share, it clearly stated that there would be no further buybacks of SOL after the buyback was completed. At almost the same time, Solflare disclosed a security incident with its staking service provider, leading to affected validators halting staking rewards. These two negative messages combined seem more like a simultaneous pressure test on "institutional confidence" and "staking infrastructure." However, based on currently disclosed information, SkyAI's actions seem more aligned with a treasury company highly bound to the Solana ecosystem, making adjustments to corporate governance and treasury strategy amidst shareholder gameplays and balance sheets, rather than some collective withdrawal declaration representing the "overall position of institutions." What truly needs to be observed on a longer time axis is whether other institutions adjust their Solana holdings in line with this, whether there are more cases like SkyAI of reductions or wait-and-see attitudes, and whether users are willing to migrate once Solflare guides them to new validators post-application update, whether the migration process is smooth, and whether staking rewards can resume as expected once the new validators are activated. These specific and visible behavioral changes will determine if this shock is remembered in the Solana ecosystem as a brief interlude or a turning point for long-term trust.
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