HTX, the crypto exchange suggested by controversial determine Justin Sun, lately redeemed 5,182 wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) value roughly $500 million, in accordance to the official WBTC dashboard.
This comes simply over three months after Sun entered into a brand new three way partnership with BiT Global and BitGo to handle the custody of bitcoin for WBTC.
On-chain information for WBTC suggests that is the sixth-largest redemption of WBTC of all time and is the most important redemption in the final 635 days.
Threshold Network delegate ‘mrsthreshold.eth.limo’ highlighted that this massive redemption was processed in just a few hours, whereas different latest smaller redemptions typically appeared to take a number of days to course of.
However, regardless of that delayed CoinList redemption, different entities have been ready to redeem extra shortly, together with a redemption immediately by Tokka Labs, a Wintermute burn yesterday, and a few earlier burns this month. However, final month Wintermute did have to wait 12 days for a small mint.
Protos reached out to WBTC to decide why the CoinList redemption and Wintermute mint took longer to full however had not obtained a response by press time.
This HTX handle seems to have been receiving vital portions of WBTC from Binance lately, together with an extra 590 bitcoin after this redemption.
Read extra: WBTC provide contracts this month following Justin Sun custody drama
Taylor Monahan additionally highlighted that HTX appeared to have modified its deposit handle shortly earlier than these redemptions.
HTX and WBTC
This redemption of WBTC by HTX is unusual as a result of it’s not a generally traded asset on the exchange, with 0 quantity during the last 24 hours.
Furthermore, the HTX proof-of-reserves doesn’t embrace any WBTC in any respect.
Additionally, the handle that this redemption got here from, 0xbE6d2444a717767544a8b0Ba77833AA6519D81cD, is just not included in the HTX proof-of-reserves. Nor is 1Fgpaz4kXyz35WKMGk2Yo19mR9pk3KC8zx the place nearly all of these redeemed bitcoins ended up.
Furthermore, the 5,182 bitcoins would signify greater than one-quarter of all person bitcoins on HTX.
Protos reached out to HTX to decide why it had a lot WBTC that was not included in the proof-of-reserves, however at press, it hadn’t responded.
Justin Sun’s bitcoin issues
This redemption highlights among the bitcoin-related issues that Sun has lately been combating.
Read extra: Coinbase to delist WBTC months after Justin Sun controversy
These embrace the truth that practically half of all ‘bitcoin’ held at HTX is definitely Bitcoin-on-Tron supplied by Sun-owned Poloniex. This tokenized type of bitcoin doesn’t disclose the place it custodies the bitcoins, supplies no proof-of-reserves, and is much bigger than WBTC on Tron.
Additionally, Sun-linked pseudo-algorithmic stablecoin USDD lately eliminated 12,000 bitcoins from its reserves with none approval from the so-called decentralized autonomous group (DAO) that’s supposed to govern the stablecoin.
Furthermore, the launch of Coinbase’s tokenized bitcoin competitor Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC) has led Sun to launch hypocritical assaults on this new competitor. Coinbase in flip has determined to delist WBTC.
These varied discrepancies spotlight Sun’s willingness to freely transfer property between entities he formally or unofficially controls.
