In his recent blog post, Chinese journalist Colin Wu sheds light on the aftermath of PlusToken, one of the biggest cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes in Bitcoin history. The case involved the seizure of a large number of digital assets by Chinese authorities.
Analysis: Has the Chinese government sold the 190,000 bitcoins it held?
The Arkham article states that the Chinese government holds 194,775 bitcoins from the PlusToken. However, according to investigations, most of them have been sold between late 2019 and mid-2020.
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— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 9, 2024
The PlusToken Puzzle: Seized Crypto and Unanswered Questions
According to Wu, the PlusToken scheme, run by a middle school-educated man from Changsha, Hunan, managed to raise 310,000 Bitcoin, 9.17 million Ethereum, and over 51 million EOS through a simple Ponzi and pyramid scheme model. The Chinese police seized 190,000 BTC, 830,000 ETH, and 27.24 million EOS from the operation.
Wu stated that part of the seized crypto was sold through Beijing Zhifan Technology, which is a company comparable to the US-based Chainalysis. However, what happened with the remaining assets remains unclear.
Intriguingly, Wu and another source, Jiang Zhuoer, claim that a major portion of the seized Bitcoin was sold between late 2019 and mid-2020 when BTC prices ranged from $7,000 to $12,000.
However, questions persist about the remaining assets. Overseas analysts tracking PlusToken addresses believe that while most bitcoins were sold through Huobi, about 15,000 BTC may still be unsold. Additionally, they suggest that the Ethereum addresses have not moved.
Wu concludes that there might be a mismatch between the addresses traced by the police and those tracked by overseas observers. He also notes that the police are still tracking some addresses.
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