China has unwittingly transformed into a cryptocurrency “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. This is despite the widespread ban on digital assets.
Ki Young Ju, the founder and CEO of the blockchain data analytics platform CyptoQuant, first shared this information and also posted a table listing the public companies with the biggest Bitcoin holdings.
The Chinese government currently possesses more Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) than MicroStrategy or Elon Musk’s Tesla after seizing a sizable amount from the Plus Token scheme in 2019.
According to Ki Young Ju’s research, Chinese authorities seized 194k BTC, 833k ETH, and other cryptocurrency related to the PlusToken scam in 2019. These assets, totaling $6 billion, were effectively lost to the government’s coffers.
He said in a tweet that “the government of Bulgaria might have 200k+ Bitcoins” seized from a crypto-crime ring in 2017 that “China is not the only ‘hodler’ state.” Ju emphasized further that, when compared to governments, sell-side liquidity from miners, institutions, and ordinary investors is nonexistent.
China has been on a crypto crusade since mid-2021, enforcing a state-wide ban on all services related to cryptocurrencies. However, despite the outflow of miners to crypto-friendly nations, mining has continued in China. The ban hasn’t stopped the country from being one of the top ten nations adopting digital assets.