SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI) shot to fame in 2021 after going public through a SPAC merger. With its all-in-one financial platform and a push from CEO Anthony Noto, the company quickly gained popularity among retail investors.
It expanded fast, secured a national bank charter, and became one of the most talked-about fintech stocks of the post-COVID boom.
But the stock hasn’t had a smooth ride. It’s been highly volatile, moving in sync with broader tech trends and investor sentiment.
Alongside these swings, one pattern stood out: insider stock sales.
In this article, we break down the most significant insider sales at SoFi, looking at who sold, when, how much they sold for, and how the public, especially on Twitter and Reddit, reacted to each move.
TL;DR
- Between 2020 and 2025, SOFi insiders sold stock around major milestones — including earnings, lockup expirations, and government contract wins.
- These sales were disclosed in SEC Form 4 filings, but the timing often raised flags among retail investors.
- Twitter and Reddit exploded with backlash, accusing executives of jumping ship while hyping the stock.
- While most trades were likely legal or pre-planned, optics and investor trust took a hit.
Inside the SOFi Insider Trading Fallout: Key Sales, Timing, and Public Blowback
Between 2020 and 2025, several key figures at SoFi, including executives, board members, and early investors, sold large amounts of stock.
These sales were disclosed through SEC Form 4 filings and often happened right after major events like earnings reports, charter approvals, or big price rallies.
That timing raised eyebrows.
Michel Combes (SoftBank) — November 2021
Just a few months after SoFi went public, one of its biggest early backers, SoftBank Group, sold a large chunk of shares.
The sale was led by Michel Combes, SoftBank’s representative on SoFi’s board, through a secondary offering in mid-November 2021.
In total, SoftBank and other venture investors sold about 50 million SoFi shares to the public.
SoftBank’s share of that was 22.5 million shares, which dropped its stake from 117.8 million (14.6%) to around 95 million shares (11.8%). Silver Lake also trimmed its position, going from about 4.9% to 3.9% ownership.
The timing raised some concerns. SoFi had just reported strong Q3 earnings, and the stock had spiked to over $23. The insider sale was announced shortly after, and the stock dropped roughly 12%, settling around $20.
This sale came right after SoFi’s post-SPAC lockup period ended and during a broader fintech rally. SoftBank and other insiders appeared to be cashing in while the stock was near its highs.
Still, they didn’t exit completely. The group sold only about 17% of their combined holdings, keeping the remaining 83%. Even after the sale, insiders like SoftBank still owned nearly a third of SoFi’s shares.
This move was widely seen as a partial profit-taking rather than a full exit. Some analysts argued it was typical portfolio management for large investment firms.
SoFi bulls downplayed the news, pointing out that the company had just posted great results and that early investors taking a bit of profit didn’t signal any loss of faith in the business.
Jeremy Rishel (Chief Technology Officer) — 2023 Sales Spree
Not all insider selling came from outside investors. In 2023, SoFi’s Chief Technology Officer, Jeremy Rishel, sold shares in three separate batches, each one shortly after a quarterly earnings report.
- March 3, 2023: Rishel sold 81,000 shares at an average of $6.46, cashing out about $523,000 just days after SoFi released its Q4 2022 results.
- May 9, 2023: He sold 200,000 shares at around $5.46, netting approximately $1.09 million. This came a week after SoFi posted strong Q1 earnings on May 1.
- September 1, 2023: Rishel sold another 53,532 shares at about $8.88, earning $475,000. This sale happened after a summer rally that saw SoFi’s stock up over 85% for the year.
All told, Rishel sold 334,000 shares in 2023, bringing in around $2.1 million. After the September sale, he still held roughly 160,000 shares.
These trades weren’t random.
Each one was filed as an open-market sale during permitted windows, typically after earnings when insiders are cleared to trade. And they all came after stock price bumps, suggesting Rishel was taking advantage of strength in the market.
Importantly, this wasn’t a one-time dump.
His sales followed a consistent pattern over the prior year, likely tied to personal finance planning or tax obligations from vested stock.
One analyst on Twitter noted that Rishel’s trades showed a steady rhythm, saying, “He’s fairly consistent in trimming his position,” rather than reacting to headlines or insider info.
Despite selling hundreds of thousands of shares, Rishel still owned a large stake. As of mid-2025, filings showed he held over 650,000 shares of SoFi.
Chad Borton, Aaron Webster & Lauren Webb — November 2023
After a strong earnings report in late October 2023, SoFi’s stock jumped 17% in a single day. Within a week, three top executives took the opportunity to sell sizable chunks of their holdings.
- Chad Borton, President of SoFi Bank, sold 152,000 shares on November 2, at around $7.99 per share. The sale cut his stake in half, leaving him with about 158,000 shares.
- Aaron Webster, Chief Risk Officer, sold 215,299 shares on November 3 at approximately $8.08. His remaining stake was reduced to around 476,000 shares.
- Lauren Stafford Webb, Chief Marketing Officer, sold 135,832 shares on November 6 at an average of $7.58. Afterward, she still held roughly 257,600 shares.
Each executive walked away with proceeds north of $1 million, and all three had made similar sales just a few months earlier in June 2023, also after a stock rally.
The pattern suggests they were following a semi-regular schedule, likely tied to vested shares or stock options. Selling around earnings beats and market highs is common among executives managing personal finances.
Still, the timing raised questions. Selling right after SoFi’s biggest stock jump in months made it look like insiders were taking advantage of the rally. Some investors wondered if they saw limited upside ahead.
But there’s a more practical explanation. The November sales lined up with the vesting of stock awards, and the amounts were consistent with their June trades, implying the sales were pre-planned under 10b5-1 trading arrangements.
The news did spark debate online. Some skeptics pointed to the headlines about “multiple insiders selling” and saw a red flag. But SoFi bulls quickly pushed back.
“So much consternation about insider selling at $SOFI. Guys, relax,” tweeted @DataDInvesting, cautioning that such insider moves are often noise rather than signal.
What helped calm nerves even more? The fact that, in the same week, CEO Anthony Noto and CFO Chris Lapointe were buying SoFi shares. On November 6, Noto disclosed a purchase of 44,000 shares, and Lapointe picked up nearly 15,000 sharesa combined buy worth over $300,000.
In the end, most investors saw the sales as routine moves by mid-level execs taking some profit, not a vote of no confidence.
Ahmed Al-Hammadi (QIA) — June 2024
In June 2024, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), one of SoFi’s biggest early investor, fully exited its position. Represented on SoFi’s board by Ahmed Al-Hammadi, QIA sold its entire remaining stake in a single move.
On June 13, an SEC filing revealed that QIA’s affiliate sold 19.84 million shares at an average price of $6.78, cashing out for a total of $134.5 million. With that, QIA’s ownership in SoFi dropped to zero.
This wasn’t QIA’s first time selling. Back in November 2021, it had offloaded 4.68 million shares at about $21.60m near SoFi’s post-SPAC highs, but kept the majority of its stake at the time. The 2024 sale, though, marked a clean break.
QIA had first invested $500 million into SoFi during its pre-SPAC days in 2019. Since then, the stock had gone through wild swings, from the highs of 2021 to the much lower levels of 2022 and 2023. By mid-2024, shares were trading in the $6–7 range, far below QIA’s earlier sale price and below the original $10 SPAC reference point.
Adding both exits together, QIA walked away with about $235 million, less than half of its initial investment. The move looked like a strategic loss-cutting decision. The timing also made sense: SoFi had recently reported record Q1 2024 revenue, giving the stock a small bump. QIA likely used the rally to finally unload the rest of its position.
This sale left very few of SoFi’s original institutional backers still holding shares. Silver Lake was one of the last still in the game, though it had also been gradually selling.
The bright side for SoFi: with QIA out, another large seller was no longer hanging over the stock. The float was now mostly in the hands of public investors and long-term holders.
In the end, most retail investors saw it as the end of a long, quiet exit, not a reason to panic.
Final Verdict
Between 2020 and 2025, SoFi insiders sold more than 100 million shares, a number that might raise concern at first glance. But looking closely, the story isn’t as alarming as it might seem.
Most of the selling came from early outside investors like SoftBank, QIA, and Silver Lake, who were scaling back positions after lock-up periods or during stock rallies. These were large but expected exits, driven by their own financial timelines, not necessarily by SoFi’s performance
Inside SoFi, the story was more measured. Executives like the CTO, CMO, and Risk Officer sold shares at regular intervals, usually after earnings or when stock options vested. They still held meaningful stakes and didn’t appear to be bailing out.
If there’s a pattern here, it’s that long-term leadership has stayed in, while early investors with fixed investment horizons have exited gradually. Most sales happened after good news, rallies, earnings beats, charter approvals, not ahead of bad events. That suggests strategic profit-taking rather than any attempt to get out before trouble hit.
Still, for retail investors, optics matter. Watching insiders pocket millions, especially after hyped-up announcements, can feel discouraging. The truth is, insider selling isn’t always a red flag. People sell stock for all kinds of reasons, taxes, diversification, personal goals.
What matters is the context. And in SoFi’s case, the overall picture points to a company transitioning out of its early-stage phase, with early investors cashing out and long-term leadership staying the course.