The internet’s biggest, baddest underground marketplace, Haowang Guarantee got iced by Telegram.
The messaging app you thought was just for sharing memes and chatting with your pals suddenly decided to play the role of the digital mob boss, shutting down thousands of accounts tied to this massive crypto crime ring.
Clean it
This marketplace was moving $27 billion in shady transactions, mostly using Tether stablecoins.
But what happened? On May 13, 2025, Telegram pulled the trigger, banning thousands of accounts, vendors, channels, groups, the whole shebang.
Haowang Guarantee’sown website threw up the white flag, and announced the stop.
“Since all our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will cease operations from now on.”
Not exactly Shakespeare, but hey, when you’re forced to shut down, grammar isn’t your biggest worry.
Sword
The experts at Elliptic revealed that the wider Huione Group was responsible for over $98 billion in crypto transactions.
They weren’t just selling digital stuffs, but provided the whole criminal toolkit, like money laundering, stolen personal info for those nasty pig butchering scams, telecom gear, deepfake tech, fake IDs, and even physical restraint devices used in scam call centers across Southeast Asia. It’s like a crime syndicate’s Swiss Army knife.
Elliptic’s co-founder, Tom Robinson, called the closure a huge win, and he’s right. This shutdown is a game-changer in the online crime world, because it’s like taking out the godfather of crypto scams.
Victims of online fraud might finally get a breather. Telegram’s spokesperson Remi Vaughn made it clear, scamming and money laundering?
Not on their watch. They’re cracking down hard, removing these criminal communities whenever they pop up.
Hydra
But the win is partial, however big is. Another marketplace, Xinbi Guarantee, is already making waves on Telegram, with $8.4 billion in transactions so far, and that’s probably just scratching the surface.
This one’s linked to a Colorado-based company that’s been dodging the law.
The underground banking system built around stablecoins and crypto payments is still very much alive and kicking, laundering money on a massive scale.
Either way, Telegram’s crackdown is a major blow to the crypto crime underworld, but the game’s far from over.
These marketplaces are slippery, evolving, and ready to pop up again like a bad rash. Still, shutting down the biggest darknet marketplace ever? That’s a news you don’t see every day.
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