HTX moved roughly 700 million TRX out of a wallet it had previously identified as part of its reserves, shortly before the tokens disappeared from the exchange’s June proof-of-reserves disclosure.

At the prices cited in the investigation, the tokens were worth about $238 million.

Online sleuths are now providing some light on where those assets might have gone. A substantial portion seem to have reached an address that currently supports a Super Representative associated with Justin Sun’s Poloniex, while another 100 million TRX passed through HTX-linked wallets before reaching an address labeled as Binance-Hot 7.

The movements hence prove that the funds weren't stolen or misappropriated. However, it still raises fresh questions about how HTX manages and discloses its reserves — particularly as more than $1 billion in other assets were simultaneously moved under the control of an undisclosed “ThirdParty” custodian.

700 Million TRX Leaves an HTX Reserve Wallet

In May, HTX transferred 700 million TRX from an address labeled “HTX-Cold 6” that had previously appeared in the exchange’s proof-of-reserves. The 700 million TRX was later split between two main destinations.

About 200 million TRX was sent to TPznYuGCgYSWW8boAnFVMvv3RhNKqFaVpL before being forwarded to TFTWNgDBkQ5wQoP8RXpRznnHvAVV8x5jLu, an address identified as “HTX 4” on TronScan. The address HTX 4 had also appeared in the exchange’s proof-of-reserves, although it was later removed and was never shown as holding TRX in the disclosed assets.

Of those 200 million tokens, 180 million were subsequently transferred in two transactions to TEF9ZVUxhmGGffvkf59e2vdLfAG1QCMb7B, an otherwise unlabeled address. That wallet is now particularly notable because it votes roughly 928 million TRX for the Super Representative associated with Sun-owned Poloniex.

The remaining 500 million TRX followed a different route, moving to TT2T17KZhoDu47i2E4FWxfG79zdkEWkU9N, known as TT2. TT2 is one of the more controversial addresses in the investigation. Arkham Intelligence labels it “Justin Sun?” and the wallet is a significant redeemer of TrueUSD, the stablecoin with longstanding ties to Sun’s crypto empire. The address has also previously delegated energy to HTX 4.

That does not prove that Sun controls TT2. Sun also seem to been evasive when questioned by Bloomberg about the wallet’s ownership.

The Money Trail Also Leads Toward Binance

The movement of the 500 million TRX becomes even more interesting when looking at TT2’s transactions immediately before the funds arrived. One day before receiving the 500 million TRX from the HTX reserve wallet, TT2 sent 100 million TRX to TEgMTsmbVbjGK9bSeEjkZmcE8EFW8iJ8RT.

That wallet immediately forwarded the funds to HTX 4. From there, the TRX moved to TGPeN3mRTtYaAPvkPH2RJYwUQVcjYvMRS3 and then to TDqSquXBgUCLYvYC4XZgrprLK589dkhSCf, an address TronScan labels “Binance-Hot 7.”

In other words, an HTX-linked wallet appears to have sent 100 million TRX toward a Binance hot wallet just before TT2 received 500 million TRX that had originated from HTX’s disclosed reserves. Another 180 million TRX followed a similarly complicated path.

TT2 sent the tokens to TBRoa9xabNSTXTSK6iQAMPQQ7CNo2j2yuF, which quickly forwarded them to HTX 4. HTX 4 then transferred the funds in two transactions to TEF9, the address currently voting for the Poloniex Super Representative. HTX 4 also sent 35 million TRX back to TT2, creating a partial loop in the flow of funds.

The pattern resembles the movement of stETH that was previously tracked leaving HTX, including the use of short-lived addresses that briefly handled funds before forwarding them elsewhere.

Taken together, the transactions show millions of dollars in TRX moving through a network of HTX-linked, unlabeled and exchange-associated addresses.

But they still leave a central question unanswered: why did HTX move the 700 million TRX out of its disclosed reserve wallet in the first place?

HTX’s Reserve Transparency Faces New Scrutiny

The question carries more weight because the TRX movement was not the only major change in HTX’s June proof-of-reserves.

In the same disclosure that showed the roughly 700 million TRX reduction, HTX also reduced its reported holdings of more than $1 billion worth of other assets, instead attributing them to an undisclosed “ThirdParty” custodian.

Online sleuths had previously tracked a substantial portion of HTX’s Ethereum reserves to Poloniex, adding another layer to questions surrounding how assets move between companies and wallets associated with Sun’s broader crypto empire.

At the same time, HTX has since been sanctioned by the European Union and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, making questions about where the exchange’s assets are held — and who ultimately controls them — more consequential.

The 700 million TRX represents less than 10% of HTX’s total disclosed TRX holdings. The exchange’s latest disclosure still reports roughly 9.3 billion TRX, including about 922 million TRX currently lent through JustLend.

So the blockchain trail does not show that HTX has lost $238 million in TRX.

What it does show is something potentially more important for an exchange operating under growing regulatory scrutiny: hundreds of millions of dollars in previously disclosed reserves moved through a web of wallets that includes addresses tied to HTX, a Poloniex-associated Super Representative and Binance, while the exchange simultaneously changed how it disclosed more than $1 billion in other assets.

The transactions provide part of the answer to where HTX’s TRX went. They do not yet provide the answer to why.