Hundreds of wallets have begun moving around 2,800 tokens worth nearly $2 billion in Ethereum linked to the 2020 PlusToken Ponzi scheme in China.
Ethereum (ETH) fell by about 2% after several wallets began transferring funds from a pool containing 789,533 ether early Wednesday, August 7. According to EtherscanThe addresses have been dormant for over three years and last received assets from a wallet labeled “Plus Token Ponzi 2” in April 2021.
PlusToken was a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scam that was dismantled by Chinese law enforcement in 2020. Authorities seized cryptocurrencies currently worth $14 billion, including 194,775 Bitcoin (BTC) and 833,083 Ethereum, worth $11.2 billion and $2.11 billion, respectively.
Chinese police have also seized tens to hundreds of millions of Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), EOS (EOS), Dash (DASH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Tether (USDT).
A lower district court in Yancheng, China, convicted 15 individuals in the case that reportedly affected 2 million investors.
Is Ethereum Collapsing Under Selling Pressure?
Ethereum may be experiencing its moment of ascension to the top of Mount Gox, as data shows a significant amount of ether moving. According to crypto.news, market maker Jump Crypto also sent $277 million worth of ether to exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.
The Chicago-based company has also withdrawn thousands of ether from Lido Finance and may be ready to liquidate the assets.
While there have been no reports of Chinese authorities selling ETH or Jump offloading the asset for stablecoins, such an outcome could increase selling pressure on Ethereum after a broad market sell-off.
In fact, Ethereum has lost 25% in the past seven days and has been above $2,400 for less than 48 hours at the time of writing. The market price of Ethereum has remained fairly stable, showing a 0.7% increase in 24 hours.