Hundreds of Cryptocurrency Wallets That Have Remained Inactive for Over Three Years Have Suddenly Started Shifting Large Amounts of Ether (ETH).

According to onchain analyst Lookonchain, up to 789,533 ETH

In 2021, cryptocurrency scams reached an all-time high, with victims losing over $14 billion to crypto Ponzi schemes, NFT scams and other fraudulent activities, according to a recent Chainalysis report.

Now, hundreds of cryptocurrency wallets that have remained largely inactive for over three years have suddenly begun shifting large amounts of Ether (ETH).

According to onchain analyst Lookonchain, up to 789,533 ETH $2,395 was linked to the Plus Token Ponzi and has not been moved since April 2021.

ETH

$2,395

Onchain tracking revealed the tokens were associated with the “Plus Token Ponzi 2” wallet, which dispersed the ETH to thousands of smaller wallets in 2020.

Chinese authorities had seized the assets during a large-scale cryptocurrency scam investigation in 2020.

The assets included 194,775 Bitcoin BTC $56,067 , 833,083 ETH, 497 million XRP XRP $0.50 , 6 billion Dogecoin DOGE $0.08 , and other assets like Bitcoin Cash BCH $315 , Litecoin LTC $56.91 and Tether USDT $1.00 .

BTC

$56,067

XRP

$0.50

DOGE

$0.08

BCH

$315

LTC

$56.91

USDT

$1.00

Although the combination of seized tokens was worth around $4.2 billion in late 2020, the total funds are now worth around $13.5 billion as current asset prices are much higher.

The reactivation of these wallets and the potential for a sell-off of the seized funds by the Chinese authorities could trigger panic in the market, but this has yet to be seen.

At the time of writing, ETH’s price was around $2,474, up around 1% on the day, and so far, the ETH outflows from the wallets began at 10:17 am UTC on Aug. 7.