TRM Labs Says HTX Rotated Wallets Across 4,500 Addresses After UK Sanctions Hit

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs went public with a blunt accusation: HTX, the crypto exchange owned by Justin Sun, rapidly rotated its wallet infrastructure after UK sanctions landed on Huobi Global S.A. in May. Fast. Deliberate. And, per TRM Labs, designed to stay ahead of screening tools.

The UK sanctions against Huobi Global S.A. weren’t minor. Regulators alleged the company was used by Russia’s A7 Network to dodge international sanctions — a serious charge that put HTX directly in the spotlight. HTX fired back quickly, insisting that Huobi Global S.A. is a completely separate legal entity from the HTX online exchange. Clean break, they said. But that story got messy fast. Documents show Huobi Global S.A. holds the U.S. trademark for HTX and claims to operate it. So the “separate entity” defense has a pretty obvious hole in it, and observers haven’t let HTX forget that.

Wallet Rotation and the “ThirdParty” Reserve Play

Ari Redbord from TRM Labs was direct about what the firm saw. HTX’s wallet changes, he said, look like a strategy to outpace static list screenings — the standard method exchanges and compliance teams use to flag wallets tied to sanctioned entities. Change the wallet, drop off the list, keep moving. HTX called it routine security. Industry-standard practice, they said. Nothing unusual.

But there’s a separate problem sitting alongside the wallet rotation story. After the UK sanctions hit, HTX quietly shuffled its reserve disclosures. A new category appeared in its proof-of-reserves data: “ThirdParty.” No names. No details on who the custodians are. Just a label. That lack of transparency has fueled a lot of the skepticism building around HTX right now, because proof-of-reserves is supposed to be the mechanism that gives users confidence. A mystery category called “ThirdParty” doesn’t exactly do that job.

HTX hasn’t clarified who those custodians are. Not yet.

The connection between HTX and Huobi Global S.A. keeps pulling investigators back. Shared trademarks, overlapping operational claims — the two entities are clearly not as separate as HTX wants people to believe. Regulators seem to agree, and the examination of that relationship is ongoing. It’s probably the central question: where does one end and the other begin, and who actually controls what?

TRM Labs’ Broader Role — and the TRON Connection

Here’s where it gets complicated in a different way. TRM Labs isn’t just pointing fingers at HTX from the outside. The firm is also a participant in the “T3 Financial Crime Unit,” a collaboration that includes TRON — the blockchain founded by Justin Sun — and Tether. The unit’s stated goal is to fight illicit activity tied to USDT transactions on the TRON blockchain.

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So TRM Labs is, basically, simultaneously scrutinizing an exchange owned by Sun while partnering with Sun’s blockchain network on a financial crime initiative. That’s a tension worth noting, even if neither party has addressed it directly. The source didn’t specify whether TRM Labs sees any conflict there.

The T3 unit’s work matters beyond the HTX situation. USDT flows on TRON are massive — the network carries an enormous share of global stablecoin volume, and illicit actors have used it precisely because of that liquidity and speed. Getting Tether and TRON to cooperate on monitoring is genuinely useful for the broader compliance ecosystem. But the optics of that partnership, sitting next to TRM Labs’ HTX accusations, are awkward at minimum.

What’s Actually Unresolved

The HTX situation isn’t close to settled. The wallet rotation accusations are serious. The “ThirdParty” reserve category is still unexplained. The Huobi Global S.A. trademark overlap hasn’t been resolved. And HTX’s compliance posture — which the exchange describes as standard — hasn’t satisfied anyone watching closely.

Crypto exchanges operating across jurisdictions have always faced pressure to show clean books and transparent structures. International sanctions enforcement has made that harder, not easier. Static screening lists are only as good as the wallet data behind them, and if an exchange rotates wallets fast enough, it can stay ahead of those lists for a while. TRM Labs is essentially saying HTX figured that out and used it.

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HTX’s response hasn’t moved the needle much. Calling wallet rotation a security measure is a defensible position in isolation — exchanges do rotate wallets for legitimate reasons. But doing it rapidly, right after sanctions hit a closely linked entity, while simultaneously hiding reserve custodian identities behind a vague label? That’s a harder combination to explain away.

The “ThirdParty” reserves category still has no named custodians attached to it.