I. Introduction
On online gambling sites and some other websites' recharge pages, one often sees the recharge method of virtual currency wallets, named something like "somepay" or "somewallet," which redirects to a corresponding page for recharge. These wallets are favored by various black and gray industries, and we have also found that many of these wallets are specifically serving the black and gray industries, deeply integrated, with some platforms automatically registering a wallet account when a user account is created.
In the bank card settlement methods of the black and gray industries, there are third-party payments like Alipay and Tenpay, and aggregate payment type fourth-party payments. To correspond, I refer to the above method of settlement via specialized virtual currency wallets as virtual currency fourth-party payment. (This classification is purely personal.)
II. Operational Mode
Their business logic is simple, interfacing with the black and gray industries to handle virtual currency settlements. Although the business logic is simple, their settlement system is anything but simple, resembling the model of virtual currency exchanges. I summarize the following points:
(1) Tron addresses primarily
Due to transaction fees, efficiency, and other factors, wallet addresses mainly use Tron addresses, with Ethereum addresses as a secondary option, and the basic transaction currency is USDT.
(2) Numerous addresses, large volume
The official wallet addresses are numerous, often changing regularly, with different addresses serving different functions, such as receiving user funds, acting as a transfer hub, or facilitating user withdrawals, each address handling large transaction volumes. Some large wallets see transaction volumes of over a hundred million U in a single address per month.
(3) Free energy provision for users
In Tron chain transfers, TRX is required for payment, and the virtual currency fourth-party payment platform assigns each user a separate wallet address, automatically paying TRX for user addresses. Thus, we also see functional addresses specifically providing TRX for user addresses, and by analyzing these transactions, we can roughly estimate the scale of wallet users, with large wallets seeing up to millions of user addresses. User addresses may change regularly.
(4) Profiting from transaction fees
Most profit from transaction fees, charging 1U or 2U per transaction. Of course, some virtual currency fourth-party payment platforms are part of certain criminal groups, serving the group's operations, and for the whole, the funds gained from transaction fees are just a small part, with the security, stability, and efficiency of the settlement system being more important.
(5) Non-traceable
Unlike regular exchanges, which cooperate with judicial inquiries, virtual currency fourth-party payment platforms, being part of the black and gray industries, are non-traceable.
III. Transaction Characteristics
The financial characteristics of virtual currency fourth-party payments are similar to those of exchanges. For example, the addresses assigned to users AB are typical Tron addresses starting with T and consisting of 34 characters, showing different transaction characteristics depending on the type:
(1) External addresses outside this virtual currency fourth-party payment platform can transfer to user AB addresses, and these transactions are recorded on the blockchain, accessible via blockchain explorers.
(2) The destination of all user address funds is the official wallet address of the fourth-party payment platform.
(3) Internal transfers between user A and user B addresses do not go on the blockchain, and on the transaction page used by users, it might show as a transfer from user A's address number to user B's address number, with these address numbers decided by the fourth-party payment platform, and these transactions cannot be searched through blockchain explorers.
(4) Transfers from user AB addresses to external addresses, the real flow of funds is from user AB funds to some external address, displayed on the chain as from the virtual currency fourth-party payment platform's official wallet address to some external address.
Diagram:
From the above introduction, it is not difficult to see that the financial linkages of virtual currency fourth-party payment settlements are more concealed and difficult to trace. From personal experience, it is necessary to monitor the official addresses of related platforms, find financial patterns and transaction characteristics, and look for breakthroughs.
