Chen Zhi’s other bitcoin: the four sanctioned addresses are empty, and 15,957 BTC sits next door

The number everybody remembers is 127,271 BTC: the largest forfeiture action in the Justice Department’s history, filed on 14 October 2025. Those coins were already in US government custody. On 25 September 2026 a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled that nine people who say they were defrauded cannot contest that forfeiture, because their filings did not connect their losses to the seized wallets; victims are pointed to the remission process instead.

The second pile is smaller and got less attention. On the same day as the forfeiture complaint, the Treasury’s sanctions office, OFAC, designated Chen Zhi and listed exactly four bitcoin addresses under his name: bc1qeth6n6ryxexvkx34wnx3nuynun4474h3j0gkhw, bc1q2we5eqjj8je6lz9xwjattpc3pn4jejc5h0s70f, bc1qw4fxztd5u3sl7vrcqwk2a8v5zh5dllvckx3tlt and bc1qnujzvts45qka3cr2eqqw8ur3q6g6s0ze2wlk5m. Each was funded in the first days of March 2023 and, apart from a 1 BTC test transfer that same day, had not spent since. Together they held just under 16,000 BTC. Listing an address does not seize it — it only makes it unlawful for US persons to deal with it.

Chen Zhi was arrested in Cambodia and sent to China in January 2026. He has not been convicted of anything in the United States.

Eight days after the designation, the four addresses were emptied in four transactions between 09:32 and 11:40 UTC. Each sent its whole balance to one new address: 2,535.15 BTC to 1G9FZSu8G2AuehmCXLY8KVT4Y9BL5afu9W, 3,424.00 BTC to 1CpxnUVwfYi1SvQxZuhxMLEKV19H8Lkab, 4,999.00 BTC to 3JX2dHyVstG2xbSsmu7wjepY6BCGcFKkU9 and 4,999.00 BTC to bc1qs8f9frtpavcjn8rgshfcqy4dh7w6s94hkf8j5f. No mixing, no splitting, no exchange — a one-to-one move to fresh addresses.

The move was noticed and reported the same day. Who signed it was not established: some reports called it the work of hackers, others said the coins remained under the same control. The chain does not answer that, and neither do we.

We read all eight addresses on 2 October 2026, at block 969,627. The four sanctioned addresses hold zero. The four new addresses hold 15,957.16 BTC between them and have not made a single outgoing transaction in eleven months — not before Chen Zhi’s arrest and not after it. The only activity is a trickle of incoming dust from strangers, a few hundred satoshi at a time.

We then checked the four new addresses against OFAC’s published list of sanctioned digital-currency addresses, as it stood on 1 October 2026. None of the four is on it. The list still carries the four original addresses — the empty ones.

This is the practical point. A screening check that only asks “is this address on the sanctions list?” passes all four addresses that actually hold the money, and flags four that hold nothing. The link between them is one transaction deep and completely public, but it is not in the list. Anyone screening bitcoin has to follow where sanctioned coins went, not only where they once were.

It does not say who controls the four new addresses, and it does not say Chen Zhi does. The only attribution on this page is OFAC’s, and it applies to the four source addresses. It does not say the coins come from any particular crime; the origin of the Prince Group’s bitcoin is disputed in court. Balances are as of block 969,627 on 2 October 2026; the dollar figure uses that day’s price and will change.