Telegram Nukes Thousands of Accounts Linked to Chinese Underground Market

Telegram just wiped out a massive network of accounts tied to illicit Chinese trading—another cleanup that’ll make compliance officers cheer (and criminals scramble).

Behind the purge: The platform’s cracking down on black-market activity, but skeptics wonder if this is genuine security or just PR theater before the next funding round.

Bonus finance jab: Meanwhile, Wall Street still can’t decide if crypto is a crime or an asset class—so they’ll keep trading both.

In Brief

• Telegram shuts down Haowang Guarantee, the largest darknet market that facilitated 27 billion dollars in illicit transactions.
• The platform banned thousands of accounts serving as infrastructure for the crypto-crime market.
• A new illicit market, Xinbi Guarantee, is already emerging on Telegram with 8.4 billion dollars in transactions.
• This action takes place while Telegram fiercely defends encryption against French pressures.

Telegram shuts down the largest Chinese darknet market

On May 13, 2025, Telegram orchestrated a massive cleanup operation by deleting thousands of accounts, groups, and channels associated with Haowang Guarantee (formerly Huione Guarantee).

This darknet marketplace, described by Tom Robinson from Elliptic as “the largest darknet market ever to exist“, served as a hub for various criminal activities: money laundering, crypto scams, identity theft, and even providing equipment for fraudulent call centers.

The scale of the phenomenon is staggering. According to Elliptic, the Huione group as a whole may have facilitated nearly 98 billion dollars in crypto transactions.

These figures reveal the existence of a real Chinese “underground banking system,” where stablecoins like Tether serve as currency to circumvent traditional regulations.

This intervention comes after increasing international pressure, including the designation of the platform as a money laundering operation by the U.S. FinCEN.

Remi Vaughn, Telegram spokesperson, confirms:

We have removed all reported communities. Our terms of use prohibit criminal activities and we always remove them as soon as we discover them.

A paradox between security and freedom that divides

Ironically, this strong action against crime comes as Telegram is engaged in a fierce battle to preserve encryption of its communications.

In April and May 2025, the app sharply criticized French attempts to impose “backdoors” in encrypted messaging, even threatening to leave France rather than compromise users’ security.

This huge divide illustrates Telegram’s fundamental dilemma: how to reconcile the protection of privacy with the need to fight criminal activities? The rapid emergence of Xinbi Guarantee, a new market already handling 8.4 billion dollars, suggests criminals adapt faster than regulators.

The closure of Haowang Guarantee certainly marks a symbolic victory against cybercrime. But it also raises fundamental questions about balancing digital freedom and state control. A debate far from settled, while Telegram continues to navigate between regulatory pressures and its promise of absolute confidentiality.

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