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The creators of the PlusToken cryptocurrency wallet are suspected of stealing about $3 billion worth of their customers' crypto assets.
Users of the wallet report on social networks that they have not been able to withdraw their money since June 27. The platform's token rate on June 29 froze at $139. The amount of losses is currently estimated at 20 billion yuan ($3 billion). Moreover, this figure was voiced by the victims of scammers, Therefore, the real damage can be several times greater. According to the 8btc portal, this is the largest collapse of a cryptocurrency financial pyramid in China.
The wallet was launched last year and has been in operation for over 14 months. It was presented as a decentralized international cryptocurrency project supported by a team from South Korea. The project was especially popular in Asian and European countries, including Russia.
The PlusToken website says that the founder of the wallet is a certain Mr. Leo, but no detailed information about his identity is provided. 8btc reports that despite the claims of the creators about the team from South Korea, the accompanying data signals a connection between the project and the Chinese company Jiaxing Zhejiang.
Moreover, PlusToken has all the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme. Investors were promised payments from 6% to 19% monthly of the invested amount and other bonuses for attracting participants. Representatives of the company claimed that they plan to attract 10 million users by the end of the year, although at the time of the announcement there were only 3 million registered users.
The likely head of the Chinese branch of the pyramid, Chen Bo, under the pseudonym Chen Zihan, has been wanted ever since. On June 29, he was probably arrested with five other Chinese citizens. It is assumed that they are also involved in the creation of a fraudulent scheme on the Internet. Authorities have not provided any further details, but 8btc suggests that the six detainees are the main figures in the PlusToken case.
In June, the TokenStore wallet, whose owners appropriated the deposits of more than 2,100 users, was closed.
Source
About 7000 ETH worth $16.7 million from those seized from the organizers of the PlusToken cryptocurrency pyramid were transferred to exchanges. This was reported by an analyst at OXT Research under the nickname ErgoBTC.
According to his estimates, this could mean the sale of all remaining ~542,000 ETH worth $1.3 billion.
At that time, Chinese law enforcement agencies arrested 27 main suspects and confiscated over $14 billion in bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
According to ErgoBTC, the seized assets were transferred to Beijing Zhifan Technology for subsequent conversion into fiat to compensate for damages.
The vast majority of PlusToken bitcoins worth about $1.3 billion were sold between 2019 and 2020.
"However, Ethereum remained virtually untouched until the summer of 2021, when just under a third of ~840,000. ETH was sent to the relatively unknown exchange Bidesk and allegedly sold," the analyst noted.
He drew attention to the fact that the liquidation of assets took place according to a single scheme with the mixing of coins at thousands of intermediate addresses.
At the beginning of August, the remaining Ethereum pyramids began to move for the first time.
"Yesterday, ~15,700 ETH was transferred from these last known addresses, a repeat of the mixing attempt that was applied in 2020 and 2021. Of these, just over 7000 ETH was sent to several exchange accounts", ErgoBTC said.
In his opinion, this is highly likely to mean a complete sell-off of assets in the near future, which will create pressure on the market.
Users of the wallet report on social networks that they have not been able to withdraw their money since June 27. The platform's token rate on June 29 froze at $139. The amount of losses is currently estimated at 20 billion yuan ($3 billion). Moreover, this figure was voiced by the victims of scammers, Therefore, the real damage can be several times greater. According to the 8btc portal, this is the largest collapse of a cryptocurrency financial pyramid in China.
The wallet was launched last year and has been in operation for over 14 months. It was presented as a decentralized international cryptocurrency project supported by a team from South Korea. The project was especially popular in Asian and European countries, including Russia.
The PlusToken website says that the founder of the wallet is a certain Mr. Leo, but no detailed information about his identity is provided. 8btc reports that despite the claims of the creators about the team from South Korea, the accompanying data signals a connection between the project and the Chinese company Jiaxing Zhejiang.
Moreover, PlusToken has all the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme. Investors were promised payments from 6% to 19% monthly of the invested amount and other bonuses for attracting participants. Representatives of the company claimed that they plan to attract 10 million users by the end of the year, although at the time of the announcement there were only 3 million registered users.
The likely head of the Chinese branch of the pyramid, Chen Bo, under the pseudonym Chen Zihan, has been wanted ever since. On June 29, he was probably arrested with five other Chinese citizens. It is assumed that they are also involved in the creation of a fraudulent scheme on the Internet. Authorities have not provided any further details, but 8btc suggests that the six detainees are the main figures in the PlusToken case.
In June, the TokenStore wallet, whose owners appropriated the deposits of more than 2,100 users, was closed.
Source
About 7000 ETH worth $16.7 million from those seized from the organizers of the PlusToken cryptocurrency pyramid were transferred to exchanges. This was reported by an analyst at OXT Research under the nickname ErgoBTC.
According to his estimates, this could mean the sale of all remaining ~542,000 ETH worth $1.3 billion.
At that time, Chinese law enforcement agencies arrested 27 main suspects and confiscated over $14 billion in bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
According to ErgoBTC, the seized assets were transferred to Beijing Zhifan Technology for subsequent conversion into fiat to compensate for damages.
The vast majority of PlusToken bitcoins worth about $1.3 billion were sold between 2019 and 2020.
"However, Ethereum remained virtually untouched until the summer of 2021, when just under a third of ~840,000. ETH was sent to the relatively unknown exchange Bidesk and allegedly sold," the analyst noted.
He drew attention to the fact that the liquidation of assets took place according to a single scheme with the mixing of coins at thousands of intermediate addresses.
At the beginning of August, the remaining Ethereum pyramids began to move for the first time.
"Yesterday, ~15,700 ETH was transferred from these last known addresses, a repeat of the mixing attempt that was applied in 2020 and 2021. Of these, just over 7000 ETH was sent to several exchange accounts", ErgoBTC said.
In his opinion, this is highly likely to mean a complete sell-off of assets in the near future, which will create pressure on the market.
