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A major Chinese darknet marketplace suspected of facilitating crypto scams and cybercrime has been shut down by the messaging service it ran on, Telegram.
The internet’s largest illegal marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it was shutting down after Telegram blocked thousands of accounts associated with it on May 13.
[td]“Since all our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will cease operations from that moment on,” a notice on the marketplace’s website reads.[/td]Wired’s report says this included banning thousands of accounts and usernames that served as infrastructure for the crypto crime marketplace and its vendors.
Telegram spokesperson Remy Vaughan told the publication that “communities that were previously reported to us by WIRED or that were included in reports published by Elliptic have been removed,” adding that “criminal activity such as fraud or money laundering is prohibited by Telegram’s terms of service and is always removed when detected.”
[td]Closure notice on Haowang Guarantee website. Source: Haowang Guarantee[/td]According to blockchain security company Elliptic, the Chinese black market facilitated around $27 billion in illicit transactions, mostly using the stablecoin Tether (USDT).
Elliptic researchers also found that the broader Huione group facilitated more than $98 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.
The market provided services to cryptocurrency miners, including money laundering, identity theft used for romance scams , so-called “pig slaughter,” telecommunications infrastructure and hardware, deep-forgery software and IDs, and even physical restraints used in fraudulent call centers across Southeast Asia.
Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said it was a “massive win” because “the largest darknet market that has ever existed has been shut down.”
[td]"This is a game changer in terms of all online criminal markets, and it's very important for victims of online fraud. This market has been a key driver of the global fraud epidemic, and I think this will deal a real blow to the ability of online fraudsters to do what they do," he added.[/td]In early May, the platform was flagged as a money laundering operation by the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It was supposed to be separated from the US banking system.
Xinbi Guarantee is growing
However, Elliptic has discovered another Telegram-based illicit market called Xinbi Guarantee, which has thousands of crypto addresses used by traders on it.
On May 13, the firm said it had seen $8.4 billion in transactions so far, but that should be considered “the lower bound on the true transaction volume on the platform.”
Xinbi has been linked to a Colorado company that was incorporated in 2022 but declared insolvent in January 2025.
Such black markets have exposed a “Chinese underground banking system” based on stablecoins and cryptocurrency payments that is used to launder money on a “significant scale,” Elliptic said.
The internet’s largest illegal marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it was shutting down after Telegram blocked thousands of accounts associated with it on May 13.
Telegram spokesperson Remy Vaughan told the publication that “communities that were previously reported to us by WIRED or that were included in reports published by Elliptic have been removed,” adding that “criminal activity such as fraud or money laundering is prohibited by Telegram’s terms of service and is always removed when detected.”
Elliptic researchers also found that the broader Huione group facilitated more than $98 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.
The market provided services to cryptocurrency miners, including money laundering, identity theft used for romance scams , so-called “pig slaughter,” telecommunications infrastructure and hardware, deep-forgery software and IDs, and even physical restraints used in fraudulent call centers across Southeast Asia.
Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said it was a “massive win” because “the largest darknet market that has ever existed has been shut down.”
Xinbi Guarantee is growing
However, Elliptic has discovered another Telegram-based illicit market called Xinbi Guarantee, which has thousands of crypto addresses used by traders on it.
On May 13, the firm said it had seen $8.4 billion in transactions so far, but that should be considered “the lower bound on the true transaction volume on the platform.”
Xinbi has been linked to a Colorado company that was incorporated in 2022 but declared insolvent in January 2025.
Such black markets have exposed a “Chinese underground banking system” based on stablecoins and cryptocurrency payments that is used to launder money on a “significant scale,” Elliptic said.