How many bitcoins does China own?

194,000. According to research by the analysis company CryptoQuant, the Chinese government is said to own this many bitcoins. in one tweet CEO Ki Young Ju explains how it happened: “Chinese authorities confiscated 194,000 BTC, 833,000 ETH and others [Kryptowährungen] from the PlusToken scam in 2019.”

Who Really Owns Bitcoin?

Accordingly, China would be one of the largest BTC shareholders with almost 200,000 and would own almost 1 percent of all bitcoins ever in circulation. China: a Crypto Whale? The People’s Republic was not enthusiastic about crypto in the past. Bitcoin mining was even banned in 2021. “Imagine they start selling 194,000 BTC to destroy the crypto market”, warns Yeah now.

Trace leads to PlusToken scam

The crypto assets were seized during the infamous PlusToken scam, which was a multi-billion dollar pyramid scheme at the time. A Chinese court has emphasized that the confiscated coins would be “processed in accordance with the law” and “forfeited to the treasury”. The scam project advertised a crypto arbitrage trading platform that promised users daily payouts. Users had to deposit at least $500 into the platform to receive a return.

Is China Holding BTC to Diversify Portfolio?

The new Twitter CEO Elon Musk shouldn’t like fourth place at all. If the Middle Kingdom really holds almost 200,000 BTC, it would be ahead of Voyager, Galaxy Digital and even MicroStrategy.

“Chinese government could hold BTC to diversify portfolio and have control over crypto markets”, prophesied Ju further. It is not yet clear whether CryptoQuant’s CEO’s assumptions are based on solid evidence. After all, it is not known to this day whether the crypto assets are still owned by the Chinese government or not.

China not the only Hodler state?

In 2017, the Bulgarian government reported busting a crypto crime ring 200,000 bitcoins to have bumped into It is uncertain whether the investigative authorities only found the Bitcoin at the time, or actually gained access to the loot, which is now worth billions. If so, Bulgaria would be an even bigger BTC whale than China.