Crypto Crime at Scale: Telegram Closes Billion-Dollar Underground Marketplaces

Telegram Shuts Down World’s Largest Illicit Crypto Marketplace After Blockchain Sleuths Step In

Telegram has shut down two massive illicit marketplaces—Huione Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee—that collectively facilitated over $35 billion in transactions using stablecoins like USDT. The move follows an investigation by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, highlighting how traditional dark web operations are evolving into more mainstream platforms.

What Happened?

Telegram, the globally popular messaging app with over a billion users, has shut down Huione Guarantee (recently rebranded as Haowang Guarantee). According to Elliptic, the marketplace handled more than $27 billion in transactions since 2021, making it the largest known illicit online marketplace in crypto history.

A second platform, Xinbi Guarantee, was also taken down. Operating since 2022, Xinbi facilitated $8.4 billion in transactions, according to the same investigation.

Combined, the two platforms processed more than $35 billion in illicit activity, far surpassing notorious dark web marketplaces like Silk Road ($216 million) and AlphaBay ($639 million).

What Are ‘Guarantee’ Marketplaces?

Unlike traditional e-commerce sites, “guarantee” marketplaces don’t sell products themselves. Instead, they act as middlemen, offering a platform for merchants and buyers to transact with escrow-like services and dispute resolution mechanisms—creating a sense of trust among users operating outside legal frameworks.

These platforms became especially popular among Chinese-speaking criminal networks, facilitating everything from money laundering to scams and illicit goods. Telegram’s end-to-end encryption and low barriers to entry made it an ideal host for such operations.

Why It Matters

This case signals a major shift in how illicit crypto operations function. Historically, dark web activity required access to specialized tools like the Tor browser. Today, however, mainstream apps like Telegram are being exploited as gateways for illegal trade on an industrial scale.

Elliptic’s findings suggest these Telegram-based markets have become orders of magnitude larger than anything seen on the dark web.

By removing Huione and Xinbi, Telegram has taken a rare and public stand against crypto-facilitated crime—possibly responding to mounting pressure from governments and regulators to monitor criminal behavior on its platform.

Bigger Picture: The Future of Crypto Crime

The massive scale of these platforms underscores how far illicit crypto markets have come—and how adaptive they’ve become. Criminal enterprises are using legitimate apps and digital currencies not only for anonymity but also for speed, accessibility, and international reach.

While Telegram’s actions mark a victory for transparency, experts warn that more such platforms will likely emerge, evolving to avoid detection. For regulators, enforcement agencies, and even app developers, the challenge will be keeping up with the pace of innovation in the criminal underworld.