Hold onto your digital wallets, Haowang Guarantee, once crowned the “world’s largest-ever illicit online marketplace,” just threw in the towel this week. Why? Because Telegram pulled the plug on all their NFTs, channels, and groups on May 13, 2025. No more shady business for these bad actors.
Blockchain sleuths at Elliptic spilled the tea: Telegram wiped out thousands of Haowang-linked channels after their report exposed the crime-fest. Haowang’s playground? A Telegram-based marketplace where shady vendors hawked tech, stolen personal info, and money laundering “services.” Their main fan club? Southeast Asian crypto scammers and a whole cast of illicit online characters.
$27 Billion in USDT and a Money Laundering Empire
Now here’s the kicker: Elliptic revealed Haowang processed over a whopping $27 billion in USDT transactions, making it the biggest illegal online bazaar in history. They also had some financial magic tricks with USDH, a U.S. dollar stablecoin from their “partner and shareholder” Huione Group, supposedly dodging regulatory sanctions like a pro.
Haowang wasn’t fooling anyone with its rebranding from “Huione Guarantee.” Authorities saw through it, tying the operation to Cambodia’s Huione Group, a financial giant allegedly running a money laundering empire. The U.S. Treasury’s FinCEN even proposed blocking Huione from the U.S. financial system for laundering at least $4 billion, with some dirty cash linked to North Korean cybercrime.
Telegram’s crackdown wasn’t limited to Haowang. They also zapped accounts linked to Xinbi Guarantee, another naughty platform dealing in money laundering, intimidation-as-a-service, and even sex trafficking. Together, these Telegram-based marketplaces handled over $35 billion in USDT transactions before the hammer came down.
Elliptic’s still keeping tabs on 30+ similar shady platforms. But don’t get too comfy, Wired reports Haowang and Xinbi might be plotting a comeback on Telegram, according to Elliptic’s co-founder Tom Robinson. The digital cat-and-mouse game goes on!
Abimbola Adu
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