{"id":52648,"date":"2020-12-03T02:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaintel.asia\/?p=164940"},"modified":"2020-12-03T02:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T18:30:00","slug":"onchain-researchers-suspect-chinese-government-sold-plustokens-billion-dollar-bitcoin-hoard-last-year-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/2020\/12\/03\/onchain-researchers-suspect-chinese-government-sold-plustokens-billion-dollar-bitcoin-hoard-last-year-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Onchain Researchers Suspect Chinese Government Sold Plustoken\u2019s Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Hoard Last Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A number of masterminds from the Plustoken scam were sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding cryptocurrency investors. Last week, on November 19, a court ruling had shown the Chinese government said that it seized over $4 billion in crypto assets from the Plustoken scam. Meanwhile, onchain sleuths believe the Chinese government may have already sold a great number of the coins and simply added the proceeds to the central treasury. Plustoken Masterminds Sentenced to Up to 11 Years in Prison
\nJust recently, a Jiangsu Yancheng Intermediate People\u2019s Court ruling published on November 19, shows the Chinese government seized a massive sum of crypto assets worth over $4.2 billion.
\nAccording to the court filing, Chinese law enforcement confiscated 194,775 BTC , 833,083 ETH , 79,581 BCH , alongside a large trove of LTC , EOS , DASH , DOGE, and the stablecoin tether ( USDT ).
\nNew information from the South China Morning Post (SCMP) indicates that a number of the Plustoken gang leaders have been sentenced to prison for their deeds. The court ruling had previously detailed the assets seized derived from seven members of the Plustoken gang.
\nThe SCMP report indicates that the multi-level-marketing (MLM) crypto scam was originally invoked in 2018 by an individual named Chen Bo. The project promised high returns and attracted millions of participants until the project\u2019s leaders exit scammed in mid-2019.
\nThe report also reveals that Chen and his fellow associates leveraged social media and meetups to attract victims to the project. Plustoken members promised members returns of up to 18% for an arbitrage business that never really existed. Chen and other top MLM gang leaders managed to attract 3,200 tiers of investors and close to three million Plustoken members at the height of its popularity. Onchain Research Indicates the Bitcoin Hoard Was Probably Sold Last Year
\nNow in the crypto world, numerous proponents are not too concerned about the logistics of how the Plustoken scammers defrauded cryptocurrency investors. That part of the story is obvious, as the world watched the Plustoken scam unfold like many other pyramid schemes. The biggest concern, even before the masterminds were taken into custody, is what happened to the crypto assets that the scammers obtained from victims.
\nThe court filing tells the public that the illicit proceeds from the Plustoken scam \u201cwill be processed pursuant to laws and the proceeds and gains will be forfeited to the national treasury.\u201d However, @Ergobtc a researcher from OXT Research , has been sharing information about the stolen coins and it is assumed by those in the blockchain analytics field that the coins were sold on the open market. A transaction graph from OXT Research\u2019s recent report.
\nOXT Research has recently published a special report about the subject after the team studied the onchain action. Moreover, the researchers estimate that the post-shutdown Plustoken bounty was a whopping 200,966 BTC ($3.8 billion). Most of the latest reports about the Plustoken scam have not told Ergo and OXT Research\u2019s story, as many assume the Chinese government still has these coins. Ergo has extensively tracked the Plustoken addresses and he has detailed that the coins were also mixed before they were sold.
\nThe study claims that 20,000 BTC ($382M) were mixed via the Wasabi wallet and over 150,000 BTC ($2.8B) were mixed via a very simple process OXT researchers dub \u201cself-shuffling.\u201d It is assumed that most of the coins were sold last year after being mixed and whoever sold them ostensibly leveraged the Huobi exchange.
\nLots of selling allegedly began in mid-2019, all the way until the end of the year. Additionally, the regional reporter and crypto blogger Colin Wu has also been tweeting about the fact that the Chinese government probably sold the coins for fiat.
\n\u201cThe Chinese government seized 190,000 BTC and 830,000 ETH from the Plustoken MLM case, with a total value of billions of dollars,\u201d Wu tweeted . \u201cThe official announcement seems to indicate that the government has sold it and returned to the central treasury managed by the central bank. The local reporter added:
\nWe currently don\u2019t know how the Chinese government sells [this] crypto, and whether they are exchanged for CNY or USD. But Chinese exchanges such as Huobi have a good relationship with the police, they will provide assistance if police ask for it. Governments Are Seizing More Troves of Crypto Assets These Days
\nFurther, Ergo also tweeted about Chen Bo\u2019s cooperation with the police. \u201cLet me get this straight, Chen Bo, the mastermind of PlusToken (arrested in June 2019), was entrusted with selling Plustoken\u2019s BTC , via a third party business, on behalf of the CCP?\u201d Ergo said . \u201cIn return, he only gets [eight] years in the gulag for architecting a multi-billion [dollar] Ponzi?\u201d the researcher asked .
\nErgo has also been discussing the news that the company Chaindigg was employed to dispose of the Ponzi\u2019s coins and there may be a connection to the Wotoken scam tokens as well. Wotoken was a similar pyramid scheme and it has been suggested that Wotoken and Plustoken masterminds were somehow connected.
\nLast October, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the Wotoken masterminds getting sentenced to prison, as the Intermediate People\u2019s Court of Yancheng city, Jiangsu province, denied the convicts appeal. After showing some token graphs of the Wotoken coin transactions, Ergo also wondered :
\nDoes it imply, Chaindigg was responsible for handling Wotoken\u2019s coins as well? This would explain why the coins were tossed into the same algo.
\nThe OXT researcher also asked whether or not \u201cWestern surveillance firms\u201d would be following these transactions.
\nGovernments are handling large troves of seized digital assets a lot more these days and it is assumed that last year the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was one of the largest bitcoin holders. The news also follows the U.S. government\u2019s recent Silk Road bitcoin seizure when they confiscated approximately 69,370 BTC , BCH , BSV , and BTG.
\nErgo\u2019s findings indicate the CCP sold the digital assets, which suggests that most of the selling is over. The researcher\u2019s statistics show there may be roughly 15,000 BTC remain, while roughly 170k BTC was allegedly sent to known digital currency exchange addresses.
\nWhat do you think about the Plustoken investigation and the onchain findings? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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