CryptoQuant CEO and founder Ki Young Ju has stated that Chinese authorities have already liquidated a massive trove of BTC originally tied to the PlusToken scam. Posting on X (formerly Twitter) on January 23, Ju stated:
“China sold 194K Bitcoin already, imo. 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.”
He followed up with further details about the possible fate of these Bitcoins: “The seized BTC from the PlusToken scam was mixed and sent to exchanges in 2019. There’s no point in using mixers and multiple exchanges if they didn’t sell it.”
These remarks point to an ongoing debate regarding the fate of the considerable Bitcoin holdings confiscated by Chinese authorities in 2019. While the government publicly announced that the digital assets were “transferred to the national treasury,” no explicit clarification was ever provided as to whether they were retained or sold. According to Ki Young Ju, however, the evidence suggests a large-scale offloading may have taken place via local exchanges.
The Bitcoin PlusToken Backstory
The PlusToken episode itself stands as one of the most prominent examples of illicit crypto activities impacting market dynamics. In the early stages of 2019, PlusToken amassed an immense supply of Bitcoin—on-chain analysts estimated it to be between 1% and 2% of the entire circulating BTC at the time.
The scheme appeared to create an artificial swell in demand that helped drive Bitcoin’s price from slightly above $3,000 to nearly $14,000 by mid-year. Observers noted that as this was happening, investigators identified suspicious flows of BTC moving through PlusToken-related addresses, which raised questions about market manipulation.
According to data supplemented by Ki Young Ju’s screenshots, the period of Q1 and Q2 in 2019 showcased a rapid 300% price increase. This surge was partly the result of PlusToken’s recruitment of unsuspecting investors and the resultant artificial buying pressure on Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, institutional support for cryptocurrencies was on the rise, exemplified by Fidelity’s push into custodial services. As PlusToken continued to accumulate large amounts of Bitcoin, its grip on the market became increasingly concerning for analysts who recognized the looming threat of a major sell-off.
During Q3 and Q4 of 2019, global regulatory attention to crypto assets became more pronounced, as illustrated by statements and guidelines from the SEC, CFTC, FinCEN, and other agencies. At the same time, new avenues for institutional adoption emerged, notably with Bakkt’s launch of regulated, physically settled Bitcoin futures.
Yet the biggest on-chain story of this interval revolved around the second phase of the PlusToken saga, when the scam’s BTC reserves, which peaked at roughly 171,000 coins, began moving onto exchanges in large volumes starting in July 2019.
Observers saw a swift decline in those reserves as tens of thousands of BTC were apparently sold into the market, resulting in a price retracement from near $14,000 to the mid-$6,000 range by the end of the year. In effect, it was a widespread sell-off that came to be recognized as one of the most notable “indirect liquidity attacks” on Bitcoin.
At press time, BTC traded at $103,111.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
