Did China Sell All its Bitcoin? CryptoQuant Founder Says Yes

China may have already sold the 194,000 Bitcoin (BTC) seized from the infamous PlusToken scam in 2019, according to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju. 

In a January 23 post, Ki shared on-chain data showing the confiscated assets were mixed and sent to crypto exchanges, such as Huobi, instead of being kept in the national treasury.

Related: Worldcoin Surges Following $500 Billion Trump AI Investment Endorsement

China sold 194K Bitcoin already, [in my opinion]. PlusToken’s seized BTC in 2019 was sent to Chinese exchanges like Huobi. The CCP said it was ‘transferred to the national treasury’ without clarifying if it was sold. A censored regime holding censorship-resistant money feels unlikely

Ki Young Ju, CryptoQuant CEO

For those who don’t remember (or didn’t know), the PlusToken scheme was one of the, if not the largest, crypto Ponzi scams in history, defrauding investors out of roughly US$2B (AU$3.18B) worth of cryptocurrencies between 2018 and 2019.

Trust On-Chain Data, Not CCP, Says CEO

The scheme was kickstarted by Chen Bo, who presented PlusToken as a South Korean crypto wallet and exchange platform, targeting investors in China and other Southeast Asian countries. 

Chinese authorities managed to arrest over 109 individuals and seized a substantial amount of Bitcoin reserves. While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stated the assets were “transferred to the national treasury”, it did not specify if they were sold. 

But Ju noted that the movement of Bitcoin through mixers and exchanges strongly suggests liquidation:

The CCP hasn’t confirmed a sale, which is why people still talk about the 194K BTC. On-chain data tells a different story: they sold everything, using mixers to distribute funds across exchanges in 2019. I trust on-chain, not the CCP.

Ki Young Ju, CryptoQuant CEO

Related: CEOs Deliver Jaw-Dropping Bitcoin Price Prognosis, as Crypto Arrives at Davos