Telegram Takes Down Massive USDT-Powered Scam Marketplace After $8.4B in Illicit Transactions Exposed

Xinbi Guarantee Shut Down Following Elliptic's Explosive Report

Holy crypto crackdown, Batman! Telegram just nuked Xinbi Guarantee, a USDT-fueled marketplace that's been a hotbed for crypto pig butchering scams and money laundering. This comes hot on the heels of blockchain analytics firm Elliptic dropping a bombshell report on May 13, revealing a staggering $8.4 billion in shady deals.

Get this: Xinbi Guarantee, run by Colorado-based Xinbi Co. Ltd., had been flying under the radar on Telegram until Elliptic's research blew the lid off their massive cybercrime and money laundering operation. Telegram wasted no time, shutting down thousands of channels linked to this digital den of thieves.

These crooks on Xinbi Guarantee were catering to fraudsters in South East Asia, offering laundry services for the dirty cash from all sorts of online scams, including those notorious crypto pig butchering schemes. But wait, there's more! They were also peddling Starlink satellite gear, fake IDs, and stolen personal info databases used by scammers to target victims worldwide. And how were they getting paid? You guessed it - Tether (USDT).

Elliptic's deep dive found that this marketplace had raked in a mind-blowing $8.4 billion in USDT since 2022, making Xinbi Guarantee one of the biggest illicit markets out there. And get this - their user base exploded from 119K in August 2024 to a whopping 233K by May this year. Transaction volumes? Through the roof, with over $1 billion pouring in during Q4 2024 alone.

But that's not all, folks. Elliptic also uncovered some seriously shady connections between Xinbi Guarantee and North Korean hackers. In one jaw-dropping case, $235 million was swiped from the Indian crypto exchange WazirX in a hack linked to North Korea. Elliptic's analysis showed that around $220,000 of that stolen USDT was funneled through Xinbi Guarantee's addresses. Talk about a digital money trail!

After Elliptic's exposé, Telegram didn't mess around. They took down thousands of channels tied to both Xinbi Guarantee and another major illicit marketplace, Huione Guarantee, which Elliptic had also been tracking.

But hold onto your hats, because Elliptic is still on the case, monitoring over 30 similar shady marketplaces that are using Telegram's infrastructure and stablecoin payments to pull off all sorts of crypto fraud and cybercrimes. The fight against digital crime is far from over, but with heroes like Elliptic and Telegram on the case, the bad guys better watch out!