Protos reported that HTX, the exchange owned by Justin Sun, showed a drop of roughly 700 million TRX in its June proof-of-reserves disclosure. At the prices cited in the article, that amount is worth about $238 million. A substantial share of the tokens, Protos said, later flowed to an address that supports Poloniex’s Super Representative, while some of the funds also moved to Binance.
A sharp decline in disclosed TRX at HTX
Protos said the location of HTX funds has become especially important because the exchange has since been sanctioned by the European Union and by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
In the same proof-of-reserves report that showed the TRX decline, HTX also changed how it disclosed more than $1 billion in other assets, directing those holdings to an undisclosed “ThirdParty” custodian. Protos added that it had previously traced a large portion of HTX’s Ethereum reserves to Poloniex.
That led the outlet to ask whether Justin Sun has been mixing HTX reserves with Poloniex.
How the 700 million TRX moved out of a disclosed HTX wallet
According to Protos, part of the outflow can be traced to May, before the June proof-of-reserves publication. In that month, HTX moved 700 million TRX out of TAuUCiH4JVNBZmDnEDZkXEUXDARdGpXTmX, an address labeled HTX-Cold 6 that was disclosed in HTX’s proof-of-reserves.
The tokens were then split across several other addresses. Protos said 200 million TRX went to TPznYuGCgYSWW8boAnFVMvv3RhNKqFaVpL and was then forwarded to TFTWNgDBkQ5wQoP8RXpRznnHvAVV8x5jLu. TRONScan labels that address as HTX 4. It had also appeared in the proof-of-reserves, though it was later removed and never disclosed TRX among its listed assets.
Out of that 200 million TRX, 180 million was sent in two transactions to TEF9ZVUxhmGGffvkf59e2vdLfAG1QCMb7B, referred to as TEF9.
An address voting for Poloniex’s Super Representative
A TRONScan screenshot included in the report shows that TEF9, an unlabeled address, is currently voting 928 million TRX for Poloniex’s Super Representative.
The remaining 500 million TRX was sent to TT2T17KZhoDu47i2E4FWxfG79zdkEWkU9N, or TT2. Protos described TT2 as a notorious and controversial address. Arkham Intelligence tags it as “Justin Sun?” The report also said TT2 is an important redeemer of TrueUSD, a stablecoin it described as deeply connected to Sun. TT2 has previously delegated energy to HTX 4 as well.
Protos noted, however, that Sun had been evasive when Bloomberg previously asked him about that address.
Transfers made by TT2 before it received HTX reserve funds
Protos said TT2 made a series of notable transactions the day before those funds arrived. It first sent 100 million TRX to TEgMTsmbVbjGK9bSeEjkZmcE8EFW8iJ8RT, which immediately sent 100 million TRX to HTX 4. HTX 4 then forwarded the funds to TGPeN3mRTtYaAPvkPH2RJYwUQVcjYvMRS3, and those funds were later sent to TDqSquXBgUCLYvYC4XZgrprLK589dkhSCf.
TRONScan labels TDqSquXBgUCLYvYC4XZgrprLK589dkhSCf as Binance-Hot 7. In other words, before TT2 received 500 million TRX from HTX reserves, it had sent 100 million TRX to Binance through that route.
That was not the only transfer pattern Protos flagged from TT2 on the same day. The address also sent 180 million TRX to TBRoa9xabNSTXTSK6iQAMPQQ7CNo2j2yuF. That address quickly forwarded the funds to HTX 4, and HTX 4 then sent the same 180 million TRX onward, again in two transactions, to TEF9. HTX 4 also sent 35 million TRX to TT2, creating what Protos described as a kind of loop.
What Protos says the flows show
Broadly, Protos said the transfers show millions of dollars worth of TRX moving from HTX to a variety of addresses, including one that supports Poloniex. The outlet added that the pattern resembled the movement of stETH it had previously tracked out of HTX, including the use of briefly used burner addresses.
Protos also noted that these transfers represent less than 10% of the total TRX held at HTX. In its most recent disclosure, the exchange claimed to hold 9.3 billion TRX in total, with 922 million currently lent on JustLend.