A year and a half ago, Telegram shut down Haowang Guarantee, the largest crypto black market in messaging, after facilitating $27 billion in illicit transactions. In its shadow, a competitor was already growing. Xinbi Guarantee ended up overtaking its elder, with more than 36 billion dollars sold since 2022. Washington caught up with it this week.
Xinbi Guarantee, the crime supermarket in Chinese
On September 8, the Secret Service froze $52.8 million in crypto linked to Xinbi. The next day, OFAC (the US Treasury sanctions office) designated the platform as a transnational criminal organization. Nothing like a simple dubious exchange site. Xinbi connected entire scam networks to sellers of stolen data, fake IDs, deepfake tools and laundering services.
“If Chinese organized crime can afford a tailor-made site and a laundering service like ordering takeout, then any American who has a retirement account is in the explosion radius,” summarized Jeanine Pirro, federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia, unveiling the operation on September 9. The Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force, established in November 2025, now claims $938 million seized in total. A figure which climbs quickly, but which remains modest compared to the volumes which pass through this type of platforms.
Two companies were subsequently sanctioned for having lent a hand to Xinbi: SafeW Technology, based in Singapore, and Anwen Technology, based in Cambodia. According to TRM Labs, the platform has transferred more than $36 billion since 2022, a volume that places it among the largest black markets ever recorded in Southeast Asia. These networks rarely fit into a single structure. They rely on a whole chain of subcontractors scattered across the region.
Flight to USDD: the stablecoin that escapes freezes
Faced with the freeze, Xinbi denounced an “arbitrary” measure. And immediately moved $2.8 million to USDD, a stablecoin built on Tron. Why this one specifically? Because it does not have the same built-in freezing mechanism as USDT. Tether, in fact, has increased its freezes in recent months in coordination with the American authorities, to the point of becoming an almost routine partner in anti-money laundering investigations.
The Strike Force also thanked her by name in its press release of September 9: “The Strike Force thanks Tether for its proactive assistance in this investigation. » A stablecoin without a circuit-breaker valve therefore becomes, mechanically, the new refuge for those who want to escape this type of maneuver. Ironically, the tighter “cooperative” stablecoins become, the more they push bad actors toward less regulated ones.
This game of cat and mouse is nothing new. Haowang closed, Xinbi took over in just a few weeks. Sanctioning a platform does not make the demand that fueled it disappear.
A structural problem, not an isolated blow
India has ordered the blocking of 15 offshore crypto platforms. Regulatory pressure is mounting on several continents at once, not just in Washington. But the targeted intermediaries change their names and addresses faster than regulators publish their press releases.
The amount seized this week, 52.8 million dollars, represents only a tiny fraction of the 36 billion that have passed through Xinbi since 2022. The real battle is not fought over this kind of one-off blow, however spectacular it may be in the media.
