China May Have Sold Entire 194K Bitcoin Stash, Says CryptoQuant CEO

Key Takeaways

• China may have sold its entire 194,000 Bitcoin stash.
• On-chain data indicates the Chinese government moved and likely sold Bitcoin using crypto mixers and exchanges.
• CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju says the evidence points to the CCP selling the BTC without making an official announcement.

New evidence suggests that China may have sold the full 194,000 Bitcoin (BTC) it seized from the Plustoken Ponzi scheme back in 2019.

According to on-chain data, the movement of these Bitcoin funds points to a transaction carried out in 2019 despite China never officially confirming the sale.

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju has analyzed the fund movements and believes the Chinese government used crypto mixers and centralized exchanges, such as Huobi, to offload the stolen stash.

How China Moved PlusToken’s BTC

In a post on X, Ki Young Ju provided a detailed breakdown of the on-chain data, revealing that funds were moved through crypto mixers, making it likely that the government sold off the Bitcoin in 2019.

These movements included batches of Bitcoin being transferred through mixing services before they hit exchanges for trading.

Young believes that moving the PlusToken BTC to crypto mixers would have been unnecessary if CCP hadn’t sold it.

“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,” Young said .

According to on-chain data shared by Young, most of the funds were first moved in batches to crypto mixer tools and then onto crypto exchanges for selling.

This claim is supported by data from Valkyrie Research , which shows that the PlusToken reserve, which once peaked at 171,000 BTC, began dwindling rapidly from August to December 2019.

By the end of that year, the reserves had dropped to below 50,000 BTC, a clear indication of sales taking place.

When China seized the 194,000 BTC, the market value stood at roughly $4 billion.

Fast forward to today, and those coins would be worth a staggering $19.8 billion.

Bitcoin’s price took a hit in 2019, dipping to the $6,000 range, but it quickly rebounded and surged to new all-time highs, with the asset now enjoying prices in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.

A Surprising Sale? Not Really

Although the Chinese government never formally confirmed the sale, the move didn’t come as a shock to many in the crypto world. China had already imposed a blanket ban on crypto activities, including mining and trading, by 2021.

At its peak, China was a Bitcoin mining powerhouse, responsible for nearly 60% of the global Bitcoin hash rate due to cheap electricity and the availability of mining hardware. However, as China cracked down on crypto, many assumed the government would find a way to liquidate its seized assets.

Given the nation’s authoritarian stance and its crackdown on decentralization, it was clear to many that holding a censorship-resistant asset like Bitcoin wouldn’t align with the regime’s interests.