The exchange has “rebuilt its on-chain plumbing,” TRM Labs said, with the result that address-list screening “cannot keep pace”
The effect, according to the firm, is a “continuous moving target.” A block list built on specific HTX addresses "goes stale within hours," TRM said, and would clear most activity the exchange has run since the designation, because that flow moves through addresses no list has seen. The firm argued that screening keeps pace only when it tracks the behavior behind the rotating wallets, recognizing each new address as it comes online.
The report also noted that the U.S. Treasury's OFAC and the EU have not designated HTX, so freeze obligations fall only on UK-regulated firms, even as TRM urged others to treat the exchange as an “elevated sanctions-evasion risk.”
HTX respondsAn HTX spokesperson told Decrypt that the behavior flagged in the report is benign. "The technical activities referenced in TRM's report reflect routine, security-driven platform operations common across the industry," the spokesperson said. "We categorically reject any characterization implying otherwise and have no further comment."
