On May 13, 2025, Telegram removed channels and usernames associated with two Chinese-language criminal marketplaces: Huione Guarantee—also known in later reporting as Haowang Guarantee—and Xinbi Guarantee. The widely cited figure of more than $35 billion refers to identified USDT stablecoin transfers received by wallets associated with the markets, not verified profit, revenue, or money stolen from victims.
The takedown disrupted a major online service network for fraud and laundering. It did not erase the underlying criminal ecosystem: later reporting found that activity shifted to replacement markets, including Tudou Guarantee.
What Telegram removed
Telegram removed channels and usernames linked to Huione Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee on May 13, 2025, according to Elliptic. They were not simply two discussion groups. Each marketplace comprised vendor channels, customer-service accounts, payment wallets, reputation systems, escrow-like services, and backup identities. The Huione name also appears as Haowang Guarantee in later coverage; the names should not be treated as evidence of two unrelated markets.
These were Chinese-language “guarantee markets”: intermediaries that could coordinate buyers and sellers, hold or route payments, help resolve disputes, and use vendor reputations to make transactions feel more dependable. That structure can lower the friction of buying illicit services and give a marketplace influence over access and payment flows. It does not mean every transaction followed the same process or that every listed service was delivered.
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What the $35 billion figure means
Elliptic estimated that wallets associated with the two markets had received more than $35 billion in USDT transactions since their respective launches. Its reporting put Huione’s marketplace activity at roughly $27 billion since 2021 and said Xinbi had received more than $8.4 billion in USDT since 2022. These are blockchain-attributed inflows or transaction-volume estimates—not audited financial results, marketplace earnings, or a tally of losses suffered by victims.
USDT is a stablecoin, not cash or necessarily dollars sitting in a bank account. Aggregated inflows can include deposits that are later forwarded to vendors, moved between associated wallets, refunded, or otherwise circulated. Blockchain analysis also cannot establish from a total alone whether every transfer was criminal, who controlled every wallet, or how much an operator retained. The headline shorthand that the markets “generated” $35 billion therefore overstates what the figure proves.
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How the estimate was assembled
Elliptic describes tracing cryptocurrency activity associated with the markets. At a high level, investigators identify wallets linked through advertised payment addresses, marketplace activity, and transaction patterns, then total known incoming transfers. Public blockchain records make transfers observable, but connecting an address to a person or interpreting a payment still requires attribution and context. The total can omit unidentified wallets, cash, other tokens or networks, and activity investigators could not link to the markets; it can also include funds that moved through intermediaries or were counted as marketplace-associated inflows rather than retained proceeds.
How it compares with older darknet markets
Elliptic compared the combined known inflows with approximately $216 million in cryptocurrency transactions for Silk Road and $639 million for AlphaBay. The comparison conveys the scale of Huione and Xinbi’s estimated activity, but it is not perfectly like-for-like: Silk Road and AlphaBay were primarily darknet marketplaces, while these Telegram-based operations were service hubs heavily associated with online scams.
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What the markets offered—and the crimes around them
Elliptic documented listings or services associated with money laundering, stolen personal information, scam websites and related technical infrastructure, telecommunications services, and access to criminal vendors. Reports also described more extreme illicit listings, including offerings connected to intimidation, human trafficking, and torture devices. A listing is evidence of what a marketplace advertised, not proof that every service was fulfilled or that every participant was involved in every crime.
The broader ecosystem has been linked in reporting to investment and cryptocurrency “pig-butchering” scams, in which fraudsters build relationships before persuading victims to send money; identity theft; and forced-labor scam compounds in Southeast Asia. U.S. allegations about the wider Huione network have also included cryptocurrency connected to North Korean cyber theft. Those connections describe reported allegations and networks, not proof that every Huione or Xinbi transaction funded each type of crime.
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Why Telegram mattered
Telegram provided a communications and discovery layer for large vendor and customer networks. Public channels and searchable usernames could help users find a market; direct messages and bots could support coordination; and operators could create backup channels when accounts disappeared. Elliptic noted Telegram’s audience exceeded one billion users. The platform was important to distribution, but that does not establish that Telegram operated the services or held all the funds; cryptocurrency transfers could occur through wallets and blockchains outside the app.
Telegram said scams and money laundering violate its terms and that such activity is removed when discovered, as summarized by Ars Technica. The removal of accounts is a platform-enforcement measure: it is distinct from seizing assets, freezing wallets, imposing sanctions, or prosecuting operators.
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How the ban related to U.S. action
The takedown came around the same time as U.S. Treasury action involving the broader Huione Group, which authorities linked to money-laundering concerns and criminal activity. Reporting described allegations involving scam proceeds and cryptocurrency from North Korean cyber heists. The timing and subject matter overlap, but public reporting does not establish that the Treasury action directly ordered or coordinated Telegram’s removal. Telegram reportedly pointed to its rules and an inquiry into money-laundering accounts.
Why the takedown did not end the ecosystem
Removing the principal Telegram identities made the markets harder to find and could disrupt customer coordination, reputation, and access. But an account ban does not automatically remove the sellers, payment networks, or demand for their services. Huione reportedly said its marketplace would cease operating after the removal, while later coverage documented the wider market’s adaptation.
WIRED reported that replacement or related markets, including Tudou Guarantee, grew after the purge; Tudou more than doubled in size, according to that reporting. Criminal operators can try new accounts, other messaging services, private apps, or standalone sites. That makes the May action a significant interruption, not proof that the marketplace economy was dismantled.
What this means if you may be affected
- Do not assume a market has vanished because its main channel is gone. Lookalike accounts and fake “recovery” contacts may exploit the confusion; do not send an upfront fee to someone promising to recover cryptocurrency.
- If you have paid a suspected scammer, preserve transaction IDs, wallet addresses, usernames, channel links, screenshots, and payment records. Contact the exchange or wallet provider used to send funds as quickly as possible, and report the fraud to local authorities and the appropriate national reporting service.
- If personal information may have been exposed, secure affected accounts, change reused passwords, enable multifactor authentication, and watch for attempts to use your identity. A breach-checking service can indicate whether an email appears in known breaches, but it cannot find every kind of stolen data or remove it from a criminal marketplace.
What the episode shows about crypto-enabled crime
These markets functioned less like a single shop than a service layer connecting fraud operators to data, infrastructure, communications, and payment support. Stablecoins can make cross-border settlement easier, while public blockchain records can also give investigators a trail to analyze. Neither feature makes a transaction automatically anonymous or proves what a particular transfer was for. Platform moderation can disrupt access, but durable pressure on a distributed criminal network also depends on financial tracing, enforcement against operators, and support for victims.
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