Nobody knows why HTX is juggling $1B USDT on Aave

HTX, the Justin Sun-advised cryptocurrency exchange, has cycled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Tether (USDT) out of and into the Aave lending platform over the last week.

It‘s not clear why HTX is engaging in these transactions, but they’ve caused substantial volatility in Aaves USDT lending rates.

HTX transaction timeline

0x18709E89BD403F470088aBDAcEbE86CC60dda12e (0x18709) is an address labeled as “Huobi: Recovery” on Etherscan and is where HTX received funds after a hack.

0x18709 is a frequently used address that interacts with a variety of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including Aave, Uniswap, Justin Sun-advised Wrapped Bitcoin, and more.

On July 10, 0x18709 received $34 million worth of USDT from 0xa03400E098F4421b34a3a44A1B4e571419517687 (0xa034) in a series of transactions.

0xa034 is labeled as “HTX 48” on Etherscan.

This was followed on July 11 by 0x18709 receiving an additional $4 million USDT from 0xa034.

That transaction was followed by a deposit of all $38 million into Aave before 0xa034 deposited $40 million worth of USDT into 0x18709 in a series of four transactions.

0x18709 then moved all $40 million into Aave.

Two days later on July 13, 0x18709 withdrew $90 million from Aave before sending those funds to 0xD00e0079B8CAB524F3fa20EA879a7736E512a5Fc.

That same day, 0xa034 sent approximately $120 million of USDT to 0x18709 in a series of five transactions before 0x18709 deposited those assets into Aave.

On July 14, 0xa034 sent approximately $50 million worth of USDT to 0x18709.

0x18709 then withdrew an additional $50 million worth of USDT from Aave before that $100 million worth of USDT was sent back to 0xa034.

On July 16, 0x18709 made withdrawals of $500 million, $200 million, and $200 million in USDT from Aave.

It then deposited $100 million USDT back into Aave.