US Seizes Xinbi Telegram Channels, Sanctions $30 Billion Illicit Marketplace
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Sep 12
US Seizes Xinbi Telegram Channels, Sanctions $30 Billion Illicit Marketplace
2 articles · Updated · WIRED · Sep 12
Summary
US authorities seized Xinbi Guarantee’s Telegram channels and imposed sanctions on the marketplace, targeting what WIRED described as the internet’s largest illicit market.
More than $30 billion in transactions flowed through Xinbi over four years, largely laundering proceeds from Southeast Asia-based “pig butchering” crypto scams, alongside sex trafficking and harassment-for-hire services.
Telegram had shut Xinbi down a year ago, but the market rebuilt on the platform and grew larger, prompting the US to step in where the service had not stopped it permanently.
The Justice Department also announced raids on 13 scam compounds in Madagascar, underscoring a broader Western crackdown on forced-labor crypto fraud networks that have spread well beyond Southeast Asia.
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The $24 Billion Crackdown: How the US Dismantled Xinbi Guarantee and the Global Cyber-Scam Empire
Overview
In September 2026, following a US presidential executive order to prioritize cybercrime targeting American savings, the US government led a major international operation to dismantle Xinbi Guarantee, a massive Chinese-language cybercrime marketplace. The DOJ Strike Force seized Xinbi’s Telegram channels and digital wallets, with support from Tether and blockchain firm Elliptic, freezing over $52 million in cryptocurrency. As law enforcement cracked down on rival platforms, displaced users and funds flowed into Xinbi, which adapted by shifting to new technologies and stablecoins to evade asset freezes. Despite these efforts, the crackdown exposed the network’s resilience and the ongoing challenge of stopping such adaptable criminal infrastructures.