Telegram shuts the 'largest darknet marketplace to have ever existed'

A large Chinese darknet marketplace suspected of facilitating crypto scams and cybercrime has been unopen down by the Telegram messaging service, upon which it operated.

The internet’s largest illicit marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it volition unopen down pursuing Telegram’s prohibition of thousands of associated accounts connected May 13. 

“Since each our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram connected May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee volition cease operations from present on,” read the announcement connected the marketplace website.

A study from Wired said that this progressive banning thousands of accounts and usernames that served arsenic the infrastructure for the crypto transgression marketplace and its vendors.

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told the outlet, “communities antecedently reported to america by WIRED oregon included successful reports published by Elliptic person each been taken down,” earlier adding that “criminal activities similar scamming oregon wealth laundering are forbidden by Telegram’s presumption of work and are ever removed whenever discovered.” 

Closure announcement connected Haowang Guarantee website. Source: Haowang Guarantee

The Chinese connection achromatic marketplace facilitated an estimated $27 cardinal successful illicit transactions, predominantly utilizing the Tether stablecoin (USDT), according to blockchain information steadfast Elliptic. 

Elliptic researchers besides recovered that the wider Huione Group of companies had facilitated implicit $98 cardinal successful crypto transactions.

Related: Largest ‘illicit online marketplace’ has grown 51% successful 6 months: Elliptic

The marketplace provided services to crypto scammers, including wealth laundering, stolen idiosyncratic information utilized for pig butchering scams, telecommunications infrastructure and equipment, deepfake bundle and IDs, and adjacent carnal restraint devices utilized successful scam telephone halfway compounds crossed Southeast Asia. 

Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said it was a “huge win” arsenic the “largest darknet marketplace to person ever existed has been unopen down.” 

“It’s a game-changer successful presumption of wide online transgression markets, and it's immense for victims of online fraud. This marketplace was a cardinal enabler of the planetary scam epidemic, and I deliberation this volition enactment a existent dent successful the quality of online scammers to bash what they do.”

In aboriginal May, the level was designated arsenic a money laundering operation by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It was to beryllium severed from the US banking system. 

Xinbi Guarantee growing

However, different Telegram-based illicit marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee has been identified by Elliptic, which discovered thousands of crypto addresses utilized by the merchants connected it. 

On May 13, the steadfast said that it has seen $8.4 cardinal successful transactions truthful far, but that should beryllium considered arsenic “lower bounds of the existent measurement of transactions connected the platform.”

Xinbi was linked to a Colorado-based institution that was incorporated successful 2022 but listed arsenic delinquent successful January 2025.

Black marketplaces specified arsenic these person unveiled a “China-based underground banking system,” based astir stablecoins and crypto payments, which is being leveraged for wealth laundering connected a “significant scale,” Elliptic stated.

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