Poloniex exit leaves Ethereum stUSDT nearly abandoned

Staked USDT (stUSDT), a protocol that supposedly invests in US Treasury securities to pay yields to users who ‘stake’ their tether tokens, has seen its utilization on Ethereum collapse as Justin Sun-owned Poloniex has exited its position, according to onchain data.

Staked USDT is a token that has historically been used by entities and wallets closely connected to Sun, representing a majority of all tethers in reserves at HTX, a cryptocurrency exchange he advises.

Additionally, on Ethereum, huge portions of this token were controlled by 0x176F3DAb24a159341c0509bB36B833E7fdd0a132, an address that was previously tagged as “Justin Sun 4” on Etherscan but is now tagged as “Poloniex 9.”

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Poloniex’s abject refusal to complete a proof-of-reserves, despite Sun’s repeated promises and insistence on its importance, makes it more challenging to determine if this address is more under the control of Poloniex or Sun, insofar as there is a difference.

At times, this address controlled as much as 96% of the total supply of stUSDT on Ethereum.

However, approximately three months ago, the exchange appeared to have requested a withdrawal of approximately $30 million worth of the token. This was followed two days ago by the withdrawal of approximately $11 million worth, and another $9.4 million today.

These withdrawals have left the token nearly abandoned on Ethereum, with the largest remaining holder, 0x9FCc67D7DB763787BB1c7f3bC7f34d3C548c19Fe, having only $1.7 million worth of this token — approximately 90% of the total supply.

The largest token holder on Tron, TDToUxX8sH4z6moQpK3ZLAN24eupu2ivA4, an HTX address, still holds a much larger $195 million, representing approximately 85% of the supply on Tron.

Protos has reached out to Poloniex to confirm it controls this address, but at press time had received no response.

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