The Crypto community is wondering what has become of a humongous stash of crypto worth a combined $4.2 Billion seized by the Chinese authorities who closed down the PlusToken crypto scam earlier this year.
With some investigating if the funds were already “dumped” onto the market months ago. Others are implying the state may still be holding onto the funds.
According to a court report circulated yesterday and posted online by The Block, local authorities alleged they had seized the following from seven of the Ponzi scam’s masterminds in their stakeout:
- Bitcoin: BTC 194,775 (USD 3.297bn)
- Ethereum: ETH 833,083 (USD 425m)
- Litecoin: LTC 1.4m (USD 95m)
- EOS: EOS 27.6 million (USD 79m)
- Dash: DASH 74,167 (USD 6.7m)
- XRP: XRP 487m (USD 263m)
- Dogecoin: DOGE 6bn (USD 19m)
- Bitcoin Cash: BCH 79,581 (USD 21m)
- Tether: USDT 213,724 (USD 214,217)
The court clarified that it planned to “process” the crypto “according to the relevant laws,” with the “proceeds forfeited” to China’s treasury.
And internet-based Twitter detectives believe that the tokens have indeed been sold. However, mystery still surrounds precisely how, where, and when Chinese authorities have managed to do so, considering crypto exchanges have been outlawed in Mainland China since September 2017.
The Chinese police completed an 18-month international hunt for the scam operators earlier this year and began sentencing convicted ringleaders back in September.
Some Twitter-based crypto-critics have announced that they believe the tokens were traded (or “dumped,” as one said) earlier in the year – with one thinking that the news was likely “stale “by “six or more months.”
A specialist remarked @ErgoBTC claimed to have traced the sales back to the Huobi platform, going back as far as 2019, with a Twitter user opining that this was simply a case of the Chinese government “putting a bow on the saga.”
Different yet insisted that this was simply another proof that China’s policy on crypto is crystal clear: Beijing will continue to crack down hard on tokens unless it retains an iron grip over them. These thoughts echo the sentiments of a prominent Japanese China observer, who also claimed China was pursuing a centralized digital finance approach.
But the possibility of a significant state – specifically a superpower – becoming a significant player in the crypto markets appears to have given some pause for thought.
As earlier announced, the American administration is maturing something of a bitcoin whale in its own right, following a huge crypto seizure from a dark web hacker.
At the time of writing (12:45 PM UTC), BTC trades at USD 17,005, rebounding from USD 16,700, reached earlier today. The price is still down by almost 2% in a day and 7% in a week. ETH changes hands at USD 512, also rebounding from USD 505. ETH is down more than 2% in a day, cutting its weekly gains to less than 1%
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