HTX and Justin Sun have denied claims that the exchange sprayed small USDT transfers to unrelated wallets, after traders circulated reports on Aug. 18 of unsolicited deposits that blockchain explorers tagged as coming from HTX-linked addresses. Sun wrote on X in Chinese that "The investigation is clear: it's all made up," while HTX said it had "not conducted any related transfers or testing activities" and was still reviewing whether address tagging or source-identification errors created a false link. The reported transfers were described as recurring USDT payments, generally between 3 USDT and 10 USDT, with some earlier user posts citing 7.5 USDT and as much as 12 USDT in individual cases. Users said the issue was less about the amount than the apparent source, because exchanges may automatically review or freeze accounts that receive funds linked to HTX amid sanctions-related restrictions. That compliance concern intensified because the United Kingdom imposed an asset freeze and payment restriction tied to HTX-linked activity on May 26, while the European Union was set to begin a prohibitive transaction ban on Aug. 23. Traders including 0xZiye said unsolicited HTX-linked deposits triggered warnings or freezes, though analyst Phyrex later said one Coinbase account had returned to normal after the case was escalated. HTX has maintained that attribution remains unresolved and said matching transaction hashes, sender addresses and recipient cases would be needed to determine whether a single source was behind the incidents.