Justin Sun-Advised HTX Received $500M From Tether, Which It Quickly Moved and Distributed

HTX distributes a tool to help verify its proof-of-reserves process, and a review of that address shows that as of January 1, HTX disclosed $696 million total USDT.

Justin Sun-advised cryptocurrency exchange HTX recently received a massive $500 million in Tether (USDT) from the Tether Treasury, which was quickly distributed to various non-HTX addresses.

A review of HTX's address shows that as of January 1, the exchange disclosed a total of $696 million in USDT, with the majority ($552 million) being USDT-aETHUSDT (Tether lent on AAVE). This indicated that HTX only had around $145 million in USDT that wasn't lent out.

However, on February 13, HTX received the $500 million directly from the Tether Treasury to the address TDToUxX8sH4z6moQpK3ZLAN24eupu2ivA4, which was included in the HTX proof-of-reserves but not previously listed on the proof-of-reserves document as a USDT address.

The bulk of the received funds, amounting to $400 million, was moved to the address TK86Qm97uM848dMk8G7xNbJB7zG1uW3h1n in four separate transactions.

These funds were then further distributed to another HTX address, TFTWNgDBkQ5wQoP8RXpRznnHvAVV8x5jLu.

From this address, the funds were sent to a variety of different addresses on the TRON network and appear to be no longer under the control of HTX.

The purpose of this large-scale fund infusion and rapid distribution, as well as the significant portion of HTX's liquid USDT reserves being lent on AAVE, remains unclear.