A wallet cluster holding 28,600 BTC worth $1.8 billion is suspected to be linked to the Zhimin Qian money laundering case

Odaily News, According to blockchain detective Specter's monitoring, it has identified a cluster of wallets holding 28,600 BTC, valued at approximately $1.8 billion, suspected to be related to wallets previously attributed to the Zhimin Qian money laundering case. A few weeks ago, a Bitcoin wallet that had been dormant since 2017 transferred 1,020 BTC, valued at approximately $60 million, and began distributing funds to multiple addresses in a manner consistent with money laundering patterns. After tracing these transactions, Specter discovered that the related wallet cluster connects to addresses publicly associated with the UK's investigation into Zhimin Qian. Between 2014 and 2017, Zhimin Qian organized large-scale investment fraud in China, with over 128,000 victims. UK authorities later traced substantial criminal proceeds flowing into Bitcoin, and the Met Police ultimately seized 60,000 BTC, marking the largest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history at the time. In July 2021, UK authorities transferred the seized BTC, creating identifiable on-chain links. Following the recent transfer of 1,020 BTC, Specter identified additional wallets that collectively hold 28,600 BTC, valued at approximately $1.8 billion, and these wallets have remained largely dormant since June 2021. Based on on-chain evidence, it remains unclear whether these wallets are still controlled by the same actor, other custodians, or have already been identified by law enforcement.