The Chinese telegram-based market, known as Xinbi Guarantee, has driven more than $8.4 billion in transactions since 2022, promoting the exposure of the second major black market after the Huione Guarantee.
A report published by Blockchain Analytics company Elliptic shows that market merchants will learn technology, personal data and money laundering services.
“USDT Stablecoin is a major payment method and the market has so far received $8.4 billion in transactions,” the company said. “Some transactions can be linked to funds stolen by North Korea.”
Xinbi, like Huione, serves Southeast Asian scammers, including those in charge of the so-called romance bait scheme (formerly known as “pig slaughter”).
What is noteworthy about these criminal bazaars is that they operate entirely on Telegram and become a one-stop shop for a wide range of services to help you navigate online scams on an industrial scale, ranging from technical tools to money laundering services.
Xinbi Guarantee has 233,000 users per Elliptic, and merchants fall into a wide range of categories related to money laundering, Starlink satellite internet equipment, fake IDs, and databases of stolen personal information used to target potential victims.
Other vendors are taking it a step further by stealing and threatening selected targets within China, acting as egg donors or agents to women, or engage in sex trafficking, demonstrating illegal services beyond cyber fraud.
“The market is growing strongly — we’ve seen more than $1 billion inflows in the fourth quarter of the first quarter,” Elliptic said. “The volume of Chinese guaranteed markets such as Huione and Xinbi Guarantees will make the first generation market of TOR-based Darknet marketplaces a dwarf.”
But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Xinbi is that it claims to be an “Investment and Capital Guarantee Group Company” registered in Colorado by someone named Mohd Shahrulnizam Bin Abd Manap, registered in Colorado. The company was founded in August 2022, according to the state’s Corporate Register. It has since been marked as “delinquent” for failing to submit regular reports.
Both Xinbi and Huione guarantees have also been used to wash cryptocurrency assets stolen by North Korea following the hack of Indian cryptocurrency Exchange Wazirx last July, and on November 12, 2024, $220,000 was sent to the Wallet address managed by the former.
In response to the findings, Elliptic said Telegram has shut down thousands of channels belonging to the two services, effectively disrupting the largest market, over $35 billion in USDT trading.
The development comes weeks after the US financial system-based Fione Group designated the Cambodia-based Fione Group as “major money laundering concerns” to limit access to the US financial system.
“These platforms also offer windows to China-based underground banking systems based on stablecoins and other digital payments.
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