By Richard Hines
Amusingly, China is rumored to have a hoard of cryptocurrency assets, despite its anti-crypto stance on such assets and related transactions. They’re now termed crypto whale in reports.
China, A Crypto Whale
Despite their lack of interest in cryptocurrencies, statistics show that China is claimed to be in possession of $6 billion worth of digital assets. These holdings consist of cryptocurrency tokens such as Bitcoin, Ether, and others.
Ki Young Ju, Co-founder of CryptoQuant, admitted and validated this report that the Chinese government, regardless of its views on cryptocurrency, is thought to be Crypto whales.
In the past, China has shown their disinterest in crypto by seizing 194K BTC, 833K ETH, and other tokens, which they later forfeited into the country’s national treasury. This seizure occurred during the Plustoken fraud in 2019.
PlusToken was the crypto representative of illegal schemes. The PlusToken was a ponzi scheme that began in 2018. At the time of its inception, the token attracted investors from China and South Korea. However, as with many Ponzi schemes, this plundered and swindled over $2 billion worth of crypto assets from investors in 2019.
The Chinese government however responded quickly, arresting all involved suspects and sentencing them to 11 years in prison.
Along with this arrest, a report from CryptoQuant indicated that scammers still used a mixer to withdraw over 90,000 BTC from numerous addresses. Ki Young Ju also revealed that the scammers are still active, as a transfer of 50BTC to a mixer was detected last week.
Other Countries Involved In Crypto Seizure
China is not alone in this crypto asset acquisition by seizure; The US Department of Justice confiscated $3.6 billion in Bitcoin linked to the Bitfinex hack earlier this year. The government also seized 70,000 BTC in a series of seizures.
However, unlike China, the US does not deposit these assets in a treasury; instead, these assets are auctioned.
When assets are linked to crimes, countries such as the United Kingdom aggressively engage in asset seizure. During the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine and El Salvador used their crypto assets to aid the country in its struggle against Russia.
And El Salvador is recorded to be the first country to declare cryptocurrency a legal tender. North Korea is another country with significant crypto holdings, and this government spends the majority of its resources on weaponry and defense.