Telegram Shuts Down Chinese Illicit Marketplace Haowang Guarantee

Telegram has delivered a decisive blow to organized crime on its platform by dismantling Haowang Guarantee, the largest darknet market operating within its encrypted messaging service. The Chinese-linked operation facilitated an estimated $27 billion in illicit transactions before its abrupt termination.

The crackdown saw thousands of accounts purged—infrastructure critical to the crypto-powered black market. Yet even as Telegram celebrates this enforcement action, the platform remains embroiled in privacy battles with French regulators over user data access.

Market monitoring reveals a successor operation, Xinbi Guarantee, has already emerged. Early estimates suggest $8.4 billion in transactional volume, signaling criminals’ rapid adaptation to enforcement actions.