UK Authorities Target Xinbi in Major Crackdown on Crypto Scam Infrastructure
The UK Government has issued a stark warning to the cryptocurrency sector, designating Xinbi Guarantee as a primary enabler of large-scale scams and sanctioning the platform in a first-of-its-kind move. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) identified the site as a significant hub for laundering scam proceeds, marking it as the successor to previous illicit networks like Huione Guarantee. Authorities highlight that Xinbi, believed to be Cambodia's largest scam compound with up to 20,000 workers—many victims of human trafficking—is now directly in the crosshairs of a coordinated effort to dismantle physical crypto crime centers.
Xinbi Guarantee serves as off-ramp for scammers
The UK authorities are not targeting just individual scammers, but the entire off-ramp infrastructure, which facilitates romantic scams and “pig butchering.” The Chinese-language marketplace is extremely popular, but the FCDO blacklisting aims to single out the risks.
The UK government has warned of the need to target infrastructure directly, to reach the critical points of laundering vendors that process estimated billions of dollars in illegally acquired crypto.
As Cryptopolitan reported, the escrow and payment infrastructure is key to scams. After Huione Pay stopped its operations in December 2025, new escrow and payment services tried to take up that niche, increasing the traffic to Xinbi.
The services combine marketplaces, P2P OTC tools, escrow, as well as messaging, enabling fast and coordinated cashouts. Transactions driven through these channels are difficult to pinpoint and trace among the general traffic.
Xinbi is also spreading through Telegram, alongside other channels dedicated to escrow and guarantee shops with escrow.
Xinbi marketplace remained active despite sanctions
Xinbi was unaffected by any sanctions to date, including the Telegram crackdown in the spring of 2025. In the past year, Xinbi even doubled its inflows, while traffic to Haowang Guarantee and Tudou Guarantee almost stalled.
Xinbi accelerated its activity in early 2026 after the closure of Tudou Guarantee.
Despite a limited presence on Telegram, Xinbi relies on other communication channels, so far evading the bans. Xinbi uses SafeW for its main communication, as well as the XinbiPay wallet. Originally, the service also used a Telegram-based marketplace and the Telegram wallet, but abandoned the ecosystem as it banned all escrow shops.
In total, Xinbi has processed $17.9B during its Telegram era, with no signs of slowing down. According to Chainalysis, the end result is even higher, with $19.9B transferred between 2021 and 2025.
Xinbi transacted with Huione and Tudou as well. The platform served money-management services and vendors, but also handled deposits from compound scam operations and direct confidence scams. Xinbi also cross-referenced vendor listings on other platforms.
US authorities have also opened a crackdown on escrow services and shops, with elevated attention in the past year. For now, the extremely resilient P2P payment industry still finds a way to reproduce its model and utilize the existing stablecoin payment channels, especially TRON-based USDT.
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