CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju Reveals China May Have Liquidated 194K BTC

Speculation is mounting over whether China sold its entire 194,000 Bitcoin (BTC) stash. This stash was seized during the 2019 PlusToken Ponzi scheme investigation. CryptoQuant CEO presented on-chain data suggesting the Chinese government likely liquidated the assets through crypto mixers and centralized exchanges, including Huobi.

This revelation has sparked intense debate within the cryptocurrency community about its potential impact on Bitcoin’s price and market behavior.

CryptoQuant CEO says On-Chain Data Suggests Bitcoin Sale

The Bitcoin, worth $4 billion in 2019 when seized, is currently worth about $19.8 billion. CryptoQuant CEO, Ki Young Ju revealed that the PlusToken BTC reserves started shifting just after the seizure. It suggested that the funds were sold through a crypto mixer network. Such mixers blur the transaction sources and thus hinder identification of the funds’ movement.

Ju described the action in the post on X where he wrote,

“On-chain data shows the CCP sold everything using mixers to distribute funds across exchanges in 2019.”

He also pointed out that if the government had no intention of holding Bitcoin it would have been unwise to employ mixers. This strengthens the liquidation theory.

Decline in PlusToken Reserves

The Bitcoin reserves associated with the PlusToken fraud were reduced between August and December 2019. As of the year-end, the reserve holding 171,000 BTC at one point in time had been reduced to below 50,000 BTC. This was evidenced by Valkyrie Research data.

– Advertisement –

Although the Chinese government has never formally admitted the sales, these transactions occurred during market activities that year. The price of Bitcoin fell to $6000 in the year 2019. It might have been affected by the selling of 111,000 BTC by the government agency. Nevertheless, the asset bounced back and has been doing extraordinarily well and even hit $100,000 in 2024.

Lack of Official Confirmation

However, the Chinese government has not come out to either affirm or deny the fact that it had indeed sold Bitcoin through the blockchain. This silence has raised eyebrows among the members of the crypto community. According to some, China might still possess a part of the assets. This could make it one of the biggest owners of Bitcoin in the world alongside the states.

China has had a rather negative approach to cryptocurrencies which is an additional factor in the discussion. The country that used to be a major force in Bitcoin mining has been banning crypto trading and mining since the beginning of 2021.

The opinion in the industry is that owning decentralized assets such as Bitcoin goes against the Chinese government’s regulatory and political system, meaning a sale is more likely.

The sale of a large amount of a Bitcoin reserve also poses questions on the effects it has to the Bitcoin market. As it stands, experts have observed that the liquidation is consistent with the Bitcoin price dynamics that were witnessed in late 2019 when the digital currency suffered a brief dip only to rally and start a protracted bull market.

According to the Bitcoin (BTC) chart from CoinMarketCap, the price is at $102,998.21, and this is 1.96% down in the last 24 hours. The asset has targets at the $107,090 – $109,090 zone. The bearish pressure is likely to provide support at $101,000 – $99,500.

Some of the markets’ analysts believe that the news related to China’s possible sale may lead to further price fluctuations. However, if indeed the government has sold the BTC, it would be one of the most significant cases of state-led liquidation of cryptocurrencies.