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This Is How Much Bitcoin China Owns, Despite the Ban at Home

After the PlusToken crypto scam collapsed, the Chinese authorities seized almost 200,000 Bitcoins in 2019.

By Mike Hesp
• 3 min read
This Is How Much Bitcoin China Owns, Despite the Ban at Home

After the PlusToken crypto scam collapsed, the Chinese authorities seized almost 200,000 Bitcoins in 2019. To this day it remains unclear whether the crypto assets were sold or if the state amassed the BTC.

194,000. That’s how much Bitcoin the Chinese government is believed to own, according to research from analytics firm CryptoQuant. In a View post on X CEO Ki Young Ju explains how this happened: "Chinese authorities seized 194,000 BTC, 833,000 ETH and other [cryptocurrencies] from the PlusToken scam in 2019."

China would thus be one of the biggest BTC holders, with nearly 200,000, and would own almost 1 percent of the bitcoins in circulation. China: a crypto whale? The People’s Republic has not been enthusiastic about crypto in the past. In 2021 they even banned Bitcoin mining. "Imagine they sell 194,000 BTC to crash the crypto market," Ju warns now.

The notorious PlusToken scam

The crypto assets were seized during the infamous PlusToken scam, a Ponzi scheme that once raked in billions of US dollars. A Chinese court noted that the seized coins "will be processed in accordance with the law" and "will be handed over to the state treasury." The scam project billed itself as a crypto-arbitrage trading platform that promised users daily payouts. Users were required to deposit at least $500 on the platform to earn returns.

Is China hoarding BTC to diversify its portfolio?

If the Middle Kingdom really holds just under 200,000 BTC, it would ahead of Voyager, Galaxy Digital and even MicroStrategy.

"The Chinese government could be holding BTC to diversify its portfolio and maintain control over the crypto markets," View post on X Ju adds. Whether CryptoQuant CEO’s speculations are based on solid evidence remains unclear for now. It is still unknown whether the crypto assets are still owned by the Chinese government or not.

Is China not the only hodler state?

In 2017 the Bulgarian government said they had busted a gang in possession of 200,000 BTC. Whether authorities at the time merely found the Bitcoin or actually gained access to what is now worth a billion dollars is uncertain. If that's the case, Bulgaria would be an even bigger BTC whale than China.

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