In his latest weblog submit, Chinese language journalist Colin Wu sheds mild on the aftermath of PlusToken, one of many largest cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes in Bitcoin historical past. The case concerned the seizure of a lot of digital property by Chinese language authorities.
Evaluation: Has the Chinese language authorities bought the 190,000 bitcoins it held?
The Arkham article states that the Chinese language authorities holds 194,775 bitcoins from the PlusToken. Nevertheless, in keeping with investigations, most of them have been bought between late 2019 and mid-2020.
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— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 9, 2024
The PlusToken Puzzle: Seized Crypto and Unanswered Questions
In keeping with Wu, the PlusToken scheme, run by a center school-educated man from Changsha, Hunan, managed to lift 310,000 Bitcoin, 9.17 million Ethereum, and over 51 million EOS by way of a easy Ponzi and pyramid scheme mannequin. The Chinese language police seized 190,000 BTC, 830,000 ETH, and 27.24 million EOS from the operation.
Wu said that a part of the seized crypto was bought by way of Beijing Zhifan Know-how, which is an organization akin to the US-based Chainalysis. Nevertheless, what occurred with the remaining property stays unclear.
Intriguingly, Wu and one other supply, Jiang Zhuoer, declare {that a} main portion of the seized Bitcoin was bought between late 2019 and mid-2020 when BTC costs ranged from $7,000 to $12,000.
Nevertheless, questions persist in regards to the remaining property. Abroad analysts monitoring PlusToken addresses imagine that whereas most bitcoins had been bought by way of Huobi, about 15,000 BTC should still be unsold. Moreover, they counsel that the Ethereum addresses haven’t moved.
Wu concludes that there is likely to be a mismatch between the addresses traced by the police and people tracked by abroad observers. He additionally notes that the police are nonetheless monitoring some addresses.
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