Where 700 million TRX went after leaving HTX's cold wallets

On-chain investigators have tracked part of the roughly 700 million TRX that vanished from HTX's proof-of-reserves in June, and the trail runs toward other entities in Justin Sun's orbit — plus a slice to Binance.

According to Protos, HTX moved the 700 million TRX — worth about $238 million at current prices — out of a wallet labeled "HTX-Cold 6" in May, ahead of the June disclosure that first flagged the drop. Protos broke the flow into two branches, citing Tronscan labels and Arkham Intelligence tags.

In one branch, 200 million TRX passed through an address labeled "HTX 4" (since removed from HTX's proof-of-reserves and never listed as holding TRX), and 180 million of that was forwarded in two transactions to an unlabeled address, TEF9, that currently votes 928 million TRX for the Poloniex Super Representative. Poloniex is also owned by Sun.

The other 500 million TRX went to TT2, an address Arkham tags with a question mark as "Justin Sun?" and a known redeemer of TrueUSD, the stablecoin tied to Sun. Protos notes Sun has been evasive when Bloomberg previously asked him about the address. The day before receiving the 500 million, TT2 ran a series of transfers: 100 million TRX that hopped through two addresses and HTX 4 before landing at a wallet Tronscan labels "Binance-Hot 7," and another 180 million that looped back through HTX 4 to TEF9, with 35 million returning to TT2.

Protos says the movements — including the use of briefly active burner addresses — echo the pattern it earlier documented when tracking stETH out of HTX. The firm cautions that the 700 million TRX is under 10% of HTX's holdings; the most recent disclosure claims 9.3 billion TRX, with 922 million lent on JustLend.

The timing matters: HTX has since been sanctioned by the European Union and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. In the same June proof-of-reserves that revealed the TRX drop, HTX also moved disclosure of more than $1 billion in other assets to an undisclosed "ThirdParty" custodian.

Key facts

• 700 million TRX ($238M at current prices) left "HTX-Cold 6" in May; the drop surfaced in June's proof-of-reserves — Protos, citing Tronscan.
• 180M TRX routed via "HTX 4" to TEF9, which votes 928M TRX for Sun's Poloniex Super Representative — Protos/Tronscan.
• 500M TRX sent to TT2, tagged "Justin Sun?" by Arkham; 100M TRX from TT2's activity reached a "Binance-Hot 7" wallet — Protos/Arkham/Tronscan.
• HTX sanctioned by the EU and UK FCDO; over $1B in assets reassigned to an undisclosed "ThirdParty" custodian — Protos.
• HTX's latest disclosure: 9.3B TRX total, 922M lent on JustLend — Protos.

The real-world read

The through-line Protos draws — but cannot prove outright — is that HTX reserves are being commingled with other Sun-controlled entities, mirroring its earlier stETH and Ethereum tracing. The evidence is circumstantial: address labels, an Arkham tag ending in a question mark, and a voting pattern favoring Poloniex. Sun's camp hasn't confirmed control of TT2, and the "ThirdParty" custodian is unnamed — a conspicuous gap for a sanctioned exchange where fund location is the whole question. Treat "HTX holds 9.3 billion TRX" as the exchange's own self-reported figure, not independently verified.

Opinion, and whose

Protos frames the flows as evidence Sun may be "mixing HTX's reserves with Poloniex," while noting the tracked TRX is under 10% of the total and that TT2's control is unconfirmed. No comment from HTX or Sun is recorded.

Sources

• Protos (secondary, reputable) — the reporting and transaction tracing, built on Tronscan address labels and Arkham Intelligence tags; primary on-chain data cited within. No marketing material involved.

Not financial advice.