HTX's 700 million TRX outflow tracked to Poloniex and Binance

In June, the proof-of-reserves report for HTX, which is owned by Justin Sun, showed a decrease of approximately 700 million in the amount of TRX it held.

At current market rates, those 700 million coins are valued at around $238 million.

A large chunk of that TRX wound up in an address backing Poloniex's Super Representative — another exchange that Sun owns — and a portion also ended up on Binance.

Since then, the EU and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office placed sanctions on HTX, underscoring the critical importance of knowing where the exchange's funds are held.

In the same proof-of-reserves report that showed the TRX decline, HTX also scaled back its disclosure on more than $1 billion in other assets, now attributing them to an unnamed "ThirdParty" custodian.

Earlier, Protos managed to trace much of HTX's Ethereum holdings to Poloniex.

Is Justin Sun mixing HTX’s reserves with Poloniex?

Since then, we have traced some of the TRX movement out of HTX prior to that June proof-of-reserves.

In May specifically, HTX transferred 700 million TRX from TAuUCiH4JVNBZmDnEDZkXEUXDARdGpXTmX — an address tagged "HTX-Cold 6" that appeared in the proof-of-reserves.

That TRX went to several addresses we could identify.

A total of 200 million of those coins were transferred to TPznYuGCgYSWW8boAnFVMvv3RhNKqFaVpL.

Those tokens then moved to TFTWNgDBkQ5wQoP8RXpRznnHvAVV8x5jLu — identified as "HTX 4" on Tronscan. That address was part of the proof-of-reserves at the time but has since been taken off and never listed TRX among its disclosed holdings.

Out of those 200 million, 180 million went via two transfers to TEF9ZVUxhmGGffvkf59e2vdLfAG1QCMb7B, referred to as TEF9.

That unlabeled address now casts 928 million TRX in votes for the Poloniex Super Representative.

As for the remaining 500 million, those were sent to TT2T17KZhoDu47i2E4FWxfG79zdkEWkU9N, known as TT2.

TT2 is a well-known and contentious address.

Arkham Intelligence labels it "Justin Sun?" It also plays a key role in redeeming TrueUSD, a stablecoin with close ties to Sun.

TT2 has previously delegated energy to HTX 4.

Sun has dodged questions about this address in past interviews with Bloomberg.

The day before receiving those funds, TT2 carried out a series of notable transactions.

First, it sent 100 million TRX to TEgMTsmbVbjGK9bSeEjkZmcE8EFW8iJ8RT, which promptly forwarded the same amount to HTX 4.

HTX 4 then passed those coins along to TGPeN3mRTtYaAPvkPH2RJYwUQVcjYvMRS3.

From there, the TRX went to TDqSquXBgUCLYvYC4XZgrprLK589dkhSCf, which TRONScan identifies as Binance-Hot 7.

So before TT2 took in the 500 million from HTX, it had already moved 100 million to Binance.

That wasn't the only noteworthy outflow from TT2 on that day.

It also shipped 180 million TRX to TBRoa9xabNSTXTSK6iQAMPQQ7CNo2j2yuF.

That address wasted no time in forwarding those coins to HTX 4.

HTX 4 once again split them into two transactions bound for TEF9.

It also moved 35 million TRX back to TT2, effectively forming a circular flow.

Overall, this demonstrates millions of dollars moving from HTX to multiple addresses, among them one backing Poloniex.

The movement pattern mirrors that of the stETH Protos earlier traced leaving HTX, including the use of short-lived intermediary addresses.

It is worth pointing out that this accounts for under 10% of HTX's total TRX. The latest disclosure asserts a total of 9.3 billion TRX, with 922 million of that lent out on JustLend.