Huione Guarantee, a Telegram-based black market for crypto scammers and money launderers that enabled $27B+ in transactions, shuts down after mass account bans
Following a WIRED inquiry, Telegram banned thousands of accounts used for crypto scam money laundering, including those of Haowang Guarantee …
Context & Ripple Effects
Huione Guarantee had already emerged in related coverage as a Telegram-based marketplace supporting pig-butchering and other crypto scams, and it had begun adding crypto products of its own, including a stablecoin. The account bans therefore disrupted not just individual users but a platform layer that connected scam and laundering services.
The action also sits alongside reports of other Telegram-hosted markets, including Xinbi Guarantee's $8.4B-linked marketplace. Subsequent coverage found Tudou Guarantee filling much of the gap left by bans on the largest markets, underscoring how quickly this activity can migrate.
First-order effects
- Telegram's removal of thousands of accounts immediately cuts Huione/Haowang Guarantee's access to the communications and marketplace infrastructure on which it operated.
- Huione Guarantee's shutdown interrupts a venue that had enabled more than $27B in transactions tied to crypto scams and money laundering.
Second-order effects
- Scammers, laundering intermediaries, and service vendors using the venue must shift to remaining Telegram-based markets or rebuild their contact and payment channels.
- The rapid replacement by Tudou Guarantee suggests account-level enforcement can redistribute illicit-market activity to rivals rather than eliminate the underlying demand.
Third-order effects
- If large scam marketplaces can repeatedly re-form after platform bans, enforcement will increasingly need to target the networks, payment rails, and operators behind individual channels rather than individual accounts alone.
- The pattern highlights crypto's legitimacy gap: public messaging platforms can become distribution infrastructure for illicit financial services even when transactions themselves occur elsewhere.
The trend: This is one instance of platform moderation becoming a recurring disruption point in an adaptable ecosystem of Telegram-based crypto-scam marketplaces.