Telegram’s $27B Crypto Crime Bazaar ’Haowang Guarantee’ Gets Axed

Another day, another darknet domino falls—this time it’s a Telegram-based black market that turned encrypted chats into a $27B criminal checkout line. Authorities just pulled the plug on ’Haowang Guarantee,’ the shadowy bazaar where crypto scams and laundered coins traded hands faster than a degenerate day trader chasing leverage.

Behind the takedown: A global task force finally caught up with the platform’s obfuscation tactics—mixers, privacy coins, and good old-fashioned greed. The operation allegedly laundered enough digital assets to buy a small country... or at least a few overpriced JPEGs from a failed NFT project.

Closing thought: Another ’bulletproof’ crypto crime shop learns the hard way—blockchains remember everything, and regulators eventually follow the money. Meanwhile, Wall Street still can’t decide if crypto is a threat or an asset class to repackage into a leveraged ETF.

Tom Robinson, cofounder of Elliptic, called the takedown “a game changer,” stating:

“This is a huge win. The largest dark-net marketplace to have ever existed has been shut down. It’s a big blow to the criminal ecosystem that will take a long time to recover from.”

While Haowang shuttered almost immediately, Telegram account activity indicates that its operators may be attempting to shift users to another similar platform called Tudou Guarantee. Elliptic reports that Haowang’s administrators have ties to Tudou, and Telegram activity shows a surge in new users joining Tudou channels following the takedown of Haowang and Xinbi. Whether they succeed in relaunching will depend on how aggressively Telegram continues to monitor and dismantle such operations.

Apart from Elliptic’s findings, Telegram’s action may have also been influenced by a recent move from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which announced earlier this month that it WOULD designate Huione Group—parent company of Huione Guarantee/Haowang Guarantee—as a known money laundering operation, aiming to cut off its access to US financial institutions.

Although Telegram’s action dealt a major blow to Haowang’s Telegram infrastructure, it’s unlikely to eliminate the threat entirely. Haowang’s parent company Huione Group has ties to political elites in the region, including links to the family of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet. The group’s influence and resources could aid efforts to rebuild the illicit operation elsewhere, potentially on less regulated platforms or decentralized networks.

“This isn’t the end,” said Robinson. “Online crime is a cat-and-mouse game in general. But these are very large mice.”