Despite the broad restriction on digital assets, China has unintentionally developed into a crypto “whale” with so much power at its disposal that, if it so desired, it could completely destroy the cryptocurrency market in a matter of seconds.
Indeed, according to a November 13 revelation by cryptocurrency writer Paulo A. José, the Chinese government currently possesses more Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) than MicroStrategy or Elon Musk’s Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), after seizing a sizable amount from the Plus Token scheme in 2019.
833k Ethereum and 194k Bitcoin are held by China
Ki Young Ju, the creator, and CEO of the blockchain data analytics firm CyptoQuant, first shared this information on November 2. Ki Young Ju also uploaded a table identifying the public corporations with the biggest Bitcoin holdings.
“Chinese authorities seized 194k BTC, 833k ETH, and others from the PlusToken scam in 2019. They forfeited these $6 billion-worth assets to the national treasury. FWIW, MicroStrategy has 130k BTC.”
Young Ju noted in a separate Twitter reply that the “government of Bulgaria *might* have 200k+ Bitcoins” seized from a crypto-crime ring in 2017 and that China is not the only “hodler” state.
Young Ju emphasized the following in a Twitter direct message to Fortune on this information:
“Sell-side liquidity from miners, institutional investors, and retail investors is almost nothing if you compare governments.”
To read our blog on “Crypto.com delivered $400M to the wrong receiver,” click here
