Protos traces $135M of HTX's staked ether into wallets labelled Poloniex

Protos reported on Friday that it followed a block of staked ether out of an HTX proof-of-reserves address and into a chain of wallets that Etherscan labels as belonging to Poloniex — the exchange, like HTX, associated with Justin Sun.

The trail starts with HTX's May 1 proof-of-reserves, which listed 71,853.22 stETH at 0x18709e89bd403f470088abdacebe86cc60dda12e — roughly $135 million at the price Protos used when it published. On May 30, days before HTX's June attestation was due, Protos says those funds moved to 0x7C103bbAE0DA51AE929dE97A98633668ddE80d04, then in quick succession to three addresses Etherscan tags as Poloniex 7, Poloniex 10 and Poloniex 9. The last of those, 0x176F3DAb24a159341c0509bB36B833E7fdd0a132, carried the Etherscan label "Justin Sun 4" before it was relabelled. Protos's read: HTX reserve assets ended up commingled with Poloniex's.

The timing matters because of what HTX did next. Protos previously reported that HTX moved $1.3 billion of reserves into a new "ThirdParty" line in its proof-of-reserves — a bucket that says funds sit with outside custodians without saying which ones. HTX's position is that users can verify the holdings by contacting the custodians; Protos says HTX has not answered its requests to name them. Poloniex likewise declined to give Protos addresses for the tokenized bitcoin that, per Protos, has often accounted for more than half of HTX's stated BTC reserves — hundreds of millions of dollars at a time.

All of this follows sanctions on HTX from the European Union and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. The grounds and dates of those designations weren't detailed. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has said HTX began rapidly rotating through on-chain addresses afterward, which TRM characterised as staying ahead of screening.

Key facts

• 71,853.22 stETH listed at 0x18709e…a12e in HTX's May 1 proof-of-reserves; ~$135M at the price Protos cited (Protos).
• Funds moved May 30 through 0x7C103b…0d04 to addresses Etherscan labels Poloniex 7, 10 and 9 (Protos, citing Etherscan labels).
• 0x176F3D…a132 was previously labelled "Justin Sun 4" on Etherscan (Protos).
• $1.3B previously reclassified by HTX into an undisclosed "ThirdParty" custodian category (Protos, earlier reporting).
• HTX sanctioned by the EU and the UK FCDO; TRM Labs says HTX rotated addresses afterward (Protos, citing TRM Labs).

The real-world read

Proof-of-reserves is supposed to reduce the amount you have to take on trust. HTX's "ThirdParty" line does the opposite: it asserts custody while withholding the custodian, and HTX has not named one when asked. That is the conspicuous silence here, and Poloniex's refusal to publish addresses for the wrapped BTC compounds it.

Two cautions cut the other way. Etherscan labels are crowd- and heuristic-derived, not audited attestations, and a relabelled address is exactly the kind of artifact that can be stale or wrong. Protos itself hedges — it says the path "may" reveal something. Neither HTX nor Poloniex has confirmed the transfers or the relationship, and no primary filing or attestation corroborates the trail. This is one outlet's on-chain tracing, uncontested but also unverified elsewhere.

Opinion, and whose

TRM Labs' framing — that the address rotation is about staying ahead of screening — is an inference by a compliance vendor whose product is screening. Protos's conclusion that the assets are commingled with Poloniex reserves is Protos's, drawn from public labels. HTX's claim that custodians can verify the funds is HTX's, and it has not been tested.

Sources

• Protos (Aug 7, 2026), "Is Justin Sun mixing HTX's reserves with Poloniex?" — the wallet trail, the stETH figure and valuation, the Etherscan labels, HTX's and Poloniex's non-responses, and its own earlier $1.3B "ThirdParty" report; secondary reporting citing Etherscan labels and TRM Labs.
• TRM Labs, via Protos — the claim that HTX rotated addresses to stay ahead of screening.

Nothing here is sponsored or paid placement. HTX's proof-of-reserves statements are the company's own disclosures about itself and are treated accordingly.

Not financial advice.