CryptoQuant CEO: China sold 194k Bitcoin from PlusToken

CryptoQuant CEO Claims China Has Sold Seized Bitcoin

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju suggests that Chinese authorities may have sold $20 billion worth of Bitcoin seized in the PlusToken scheme in 2019.

In an analysis shared by CryptoQuant, Ju compared the value of PlusToken's 194,775 Bitcoin reserve with the value found within mixers. The data led him to believe that the seized Bitcoin has likely been sold.

Despite claims from the Chinese government that the Bitcoin has been transferred to the national treasury, there has been no clarification on whether it has been sold or retained as Bitcoin. Ju maintains that the former is more probable.

"A censored regime holding censorship-resistant money feels unlikely," Ju remarked.

According to a separate analysis by Ju, the seized Bitcoin was laundered through mixers and sent to several Chinese exchanges, including Huobi. He concluded that the Chinese authorities would not have gone through this process if they did not intend to sell the Bitcoin.

In 2024, allegations surfaced from Chinese journalist Colin Wu that the government had sold some of the seized crypto through Beijing Zhifan Technology. Wu claimed that the sales occurred between late 2019 and mid-2020.

PlusToken was a Ponzi scheme dismantled in 2019, leading to the seizure of vast quantities of cryptocurrency, including 194,775 Bitcoin. The scheme affected approximately 2 million investors.

Despite China's ban on crypto trading and mining activities in 2021, Chinese citizens continue to engage in cryptocurrency transactions. According to Chainalysis, from July 2023 to June 2024, the Chinese cryptocurrency market processed approximately $50 billion in transaction volume.