Last Wednesday, according to data from on-chain analyst Lookonchain, there was a movement of up to 789,533 ETH in the "PlusToken Ponzi 2" wallet associated with China's largest Ponzi scheme Plus Token, which dispersed ETH to several in 2020. among thousands of smaller wallets, and the wallet has not moved since April 2021.
While Lookonchain initially claimed "hundreds" of wallets were involved and later deleted the post, analytics platform EmberCN later said it had tracked only 12 addresses that had received PlusToken-linked ether in the past 30 hours, for a total of 25,757 ether. $63.1 million).
EmberCN said: “The majority of these 789,533 ETH entered the Bidesk exchange (the exchange went bankrupt in late 2021) through multiple addresses between June and September 2021, and were then withdrawn from Bidesk and transferred to Huobi.”
EmberCN added that “the majority of the 789,533 ETH should be sold in 2021, while what is currently being transferred is a small portion that was not sold in 2021.”
However, it is worth noting that blockchain intelligence firm Arkham analyzed the situation on Wednesday afternoon, indicating that "dozens" of wallets connected to PlusToken have moved $464.7 million worth of ether in the past 12 hours.
This ETH transfer may be caused by the release of criminals related to the Plus Token fraud case
The gang of suspects in the Plus Token fraud case headed by Chen Bo was sentenced in 2019. The principal culprit Chen Bo was sentenced to 11 years. There are also some key figures who were sentenced to 6-8 years. Counting detention in lieu of actual punishment, and then Counting commuted sentences for meritorious service, there may be some major criminals who were in possession of the hidden ETH that was not turned over and have been released after serving their sentences.
The large amount of ETH movement this time may be an unexpected surprise discovered by a criminal who was released from prison searching for coins that were missed by the police. However, if the situation is true, this person is also in danger, and a major case worth 2 billion US dollars will definitely attract widespread attention.
Review of Plus Token, China’s Largest Crypto Ponzi Scheme
Plus Token was established in 2018 by Chen Bo, Ding Zanqing, and Peng Yixuan, and the platform App was officially launched on May 1, 2018.
In more than a year, it has developed more than 2 million members, and the hierarchical relationship has reached more than 3,000 levels. Not only foreign countries, but also a large number of members abroad at that time.
At its peak, the Plus Token platform held a series of famous currencies such as 320,000 Bitcoins, 9.2 million Ethereums, and 11 billion Dogecoins. At that time, the market value was estimated to be more than 50 billion.
The "link revenue" set by the "Plus Token" platform is divided into two types: "direct link revenue" and "indirect link revenue". "Direct link income" is 100% of the "intelligent brick-moving income" of each account of the first-level offline; "indirect link income" is 10% of the "smart brick-moving income" of each account of the second-level to tenth-level offline accounts %.
In order to encourage members to develop more levels of downlines, the “Plus Token” platform also launched an “executive commission” reward model. These "executives" are called "big households", "big coffees", "big gods" and "Creation" in order from low to high according to the level and scale of their developing members. Among them, "big households", "big coffees" and "big gods" can be superimposed in order. Obtain 5%, 10%, and 15% commissions from all development offline "intelligent brick-moving income"; "Creation" will enjoy platform profit dividends, monthly awards, annual awards, and dividends on the basis of the "Great God" treatment. Not less than US$1.5 million.
The "Plus Token" platform charges mainstream digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, but all profits and commissions are paid to members in "Plus Token".
This scam finally ended on June 27, 2019. On that day, plustoken announced that it would stop withdrawing cash, and noted on the page, "Sorry, we ran away."