A $20 Billion Crypto Scam Market Faces a New Government Crackdown | WIREDSkip to main contentMenuSECURITYPOLITICSTHE BIG STORYBUSINESSSCIENCECULTUREREVIEWSMenuAccountAccountNewslettersSecurityPoliticsThe Big StoryBusinessScienceCultureReviewsChevronMoreExpandThe Big InterviewMagazineEventsWIRED InsiderWIRED ConsultingNewslettersPodcastsVideoLivestreamsMerchSearchSearchMatt Burgess Lily Hay NewmanSecurityMar 26, 2026 11:15 AMA $20 Billion Crypto Scam Market Faces a New Government CrackdownThe Telegram-based Xinbi Guarantee black market sells services that help prop up scam operations. British officials just hit the highly lucrative marketplace with sweeping sanctions.Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyChinese-language online black markets have become one of the biggest drivers of cybercrime in history, processing tens of billions of dollars of illicit finance every year. Helping the trade in stolen data, money-laundering services, and even at times electrified shackles, these underground marketplaces have fueled scam operations and human trafficking around the world. Now, officials in the United Kingdom have dealt one $20 billion cryptocurrency marketplace a potentially punishing blow.On Thursday, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, also known as the Foreign Office, revealed financial sanctions against the Xinbi Guarantee online marketplace, which will likely limit its operations. The online bazaar, which has operated using channels and accounts on the messaging platform Telegram, has previously been linked to billions in cryptocurrency transactions and proved hard to disrupt.The sanctions against Xinbi were issued as British officials also penalized multiple individuals allegedly linked to the operation of industrial-sized scam compounds in Cambodia, including the 20,000 person #8 Park compound. The British government also seized properties in London, including a £9 million penthouse, linked to the sanctioned individuals. Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said in a statement that the sanctions “send ​a clear message” that those running scam compounds will face consequences. The action follows a sweeping wave of penalties from the US and UK against Cambodian-linked scamming operations in October.Over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of victims of human-trafficking have been forced to work out of compounds across Cambodia and Southeast Asia, running online cryptocurrency investment and romance scams day and night. This multibillion-dollar scam industry, which often has links to Chinese organized crime groups, has flourished and been propped up by secondary services and cryptocurrency marketplaces that sell the tools and technical infrastructure needed to operate the scams. These include Xinbi, which has become one of the largest marketplaces, since the Huione Group was sanctioned last year.“Xinbi is or has been involved in profiting financially or otherwise obtaining a benefit from human rights abuses,” the UK’s sanctions register alleges, referring to brutal treatment and torture that has happened in some scam compounds in the region. “Xinbi has enabled and profited from the operation of scam centers in Southeast Asia.”“Sanctions will make it more challenging for Xinbi, its merchants and users, to spend or exchange cryptocurrency that has passed through the marketplace,” Tom Robinson, the chief scientist and cofounder of crypto-tracing firm Elliptic, tells WIRED. Last year, analysis from Elliptic revealed that the Xinbi Guarantee platform has facilitated at least $8.4 billion in transactions since 2022. The “vast majority” of that money, Robinson said at the time, was likely to be money stolen from online scam victims. However, the platform’s other activity also involved selling the technology, personal data, and money-laundering services needed to run online scams.Following WIRED’s reporting last May, Telegram removed channels and accounts linked to both the Huione marketplace and Xinbi. Since then, though, Xinbi has rebuilt its presence on Telegram and also moved to diversify its infrastructure to be more resilient to takedown actions.“Xinbi was able to recover very effectively from Telegram's action against it. It simply created new Telegram channels and continued its activity,” Robinson tells WIRED. “In fact it has grown substantially, increasing its market share following the shutdown of Huione Guarantee and other similar marketplaces.” Robinson now estimates that across the entirety of Xinbi, including the merchants that operate on it and its own infrastructure, it has processed at $19.7 billion.The Xinbi website included in the latest round of UK sanctions lists multiple Telegram channels that contain thousands of members, with one including around 175,000 subscribers. Telegram did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment about the sanctions against Xinbi and channels linked on its website. Telegram accounts linked to the Xinbi website did not immediately respond to WIRED.Analysis from crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis says Xinbi has “taken additional steps” to protect its operations and estimates that between 2021 and 2025, it processed $19.9 billion. In recent months, it has duplicated some of its crypto payments infrastructure on an alternative messaging app and launched its own payment app XinbiPay, Chainalysis researchers write. “All of Xinbi’s services are connected on chain, signaling an effort to build out proprietary financial infrastructure and insulate itself from disruptions against other illicit service providers.”Governments around the world have taken increasingly aggressive enforcement actions against different facets of the scam ecosystem—sanctioning crypto marketplaces, working to disrupt crypto-based money laundering, and raiding scam centers. Following the US-UK sanctions last year, including the ultimate arrest of alleged criminal mastermind Chen Zhi by Chinese officials, Cambodia has been attempting to shut down hundreds of scam compounds in the region.However, the huge sums of money flowing through these criminal operations, plus close political links, often allows them to build new technology, purchase infrastructure, and become more resistant to takedown efforts. As a result of this kind of resilience, even massive international collaborations have struggled to make a significant dent in the scale and effectiveness of global scamming.Gregory Heeb, the FBI’s deputy assistant director of the criminal division, said in a United States Senate Joint Economic Committee hearing on Wednesday that scamming is still thought to be vastly underreported in the US, but reported dollar losses have still increased roughly 350 percent since 2019. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received roughly 456,000 digital scam complaints in 2025, according to preliminary data, and reported losses exceeded $17.7 billion.“The network of the money launderers is, for the most part, separate from the network of the [scam] compounds itself,” said Karen Seifert, director of the Scam Center Strike Force within the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in the Senate hearing on Wednesday. “Even if I can crack the code on who’s leading the compound at sort of the regional level, that person is totally divorced from the money-laundering network, and that’s a whole separate case. So we’re spending a lot of resources on both sides of the problem.”The scale of scamming, money laundering, and closely linked online casinos operating out of Asia is “not like anything we have ever seen before,” says John Wojcik, a threat researcher at security company Infoblox and a former official at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime focussing on scamming operations.“The critical vulnerability here is not at the point of the multibillion-dollar cybercrime and scam operations themselves, but in the underground banking and money-laundering infrastructure that has supercharged it,” Wojcik says. “Asian money-laundering organizations are clear global market leaders in this space, and we've only just begun to grasp how deeply they've infiltrated our financial systems and economies.”CommentsBack to topTriangleYou Might Also LikeIn your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gearNvidia plans to launch an open-source AI agent platformBig Story: He built the Epstein database—it consumed his lifeShould you leave your phone charging overnight?Watch: How right wing influencers infiltrated the governmentMatt Burgess is a senior writer at WIRED focused on information security, privacy, and data regulation in Europe. He graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in journalism and now lives in London. Send tips to [email protected]. ... Read MoreSenior writerXLily Hay Newman is a senior writer at WIRED focused on information security, digital privacy, and hacking. She previously worked as a technology reporter at Slate, and was the staff writer for Future Tense, a publication and partnership between Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University. Her work ... Read MoreSenior WriterXTopicsscamsCrimeTelegramChinacryptocurrencyRead MoreAnthropic Supply-Chain-Risk Designation Halted by JudgeA judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s designation, clearing the way for Anthropic to keep doing business without the label starting next week.Paresh DaveHow Trump’s Plot to Grab Iran's Nuclear Fuel Would Actually WorkExperts say that an American ground operation targeting nuclear sites in Iran would be incredibly complicated, put troops’ lives at great risk—and might still fail.Caroline HaskinsThe Amazon Spring Sale Isn’t Amazing, but Travel Favorite Cadence Capsules Are Worth a LookThis viral magnetic travel-toiletry system is rarely on sale, and this discount is legitimately good.Kat MerckThe Best Deals From the Amazon Spring SaleThis sale spans almost an entire week, and it’s full of fake “deals.” We hunted to find truly good prices on gear we’ve tested.Louryn StrampeMeet the Tech Reporters Using AI to Help Write and Edit Their StoriesIndependent writers are using AI agents all throughout their reporting process. What’s the value of a human journalist, anyway?Maxwell ZeffOur Favorite E-Readers Are on Sale Right NowAmazon's Spring Sale has multiple of our favorite e-readers discounted, including one that's now under $100. Nena Farrell This Premium Gaming Headset Is $80 Off on AmazonThe SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro is feature-packed, with endless battery life, a comfortable fit, and ANC.Brad BourqueA $20 Billion Crypto Scam Market Faces a New Government CrackdownThe Telegram-based Xinbi Guarantee black market sells services that help prop up scam operations. British officials just hit the highly lucrative marketplace with sweeping sanctions.Matt BurgessThe Sony Afeela Was Doomed to FailA six-year EV rollout ends with a thud.Aarian MarshallUsing a VPN May Subject You to NSA SpyingUS lawmakers are pressing Tulsi Gabbard to reveal whether using a VPN can strip Americans of their constitutional protections against warrantless surveillance.Dell CameronSenators Demand to Know How Much Energy Data Centers UseIn a letter sent Thursday morning, Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley press the Energy Information Agency to mandate annual electricity disclosure for data centers.Molly TaftHow to Buy Ethical and Eco-Friendly ElectronicsElectronic waste, conflict minerals, and poor labor conditions are just a few issues blighting the tech industry. Here’s how to shop more sustainably.Simon HillWIRED is obsessed with what comes next. Through rigorous investigations and game-changing reporting, we tell stories that don’t just reflect the moment—they help create it. When you look back in 10, 20, even 50 years, WIRED will be the publication that led the story of the present, mapped the people, products, and ideas defining it, and explained how those forces forged the future. WIRED: For Future Reference.More From WIREDSubscribeNewslettersLivestreamsTravelFAQWIRED StaffWIRED EducationEditorial StandardsArchiveRSSSite MapAccessibility HelpReviews and GuidesReviewsBuying GuidesStreaming GuidesWearablesCouponsGift GuidesAdvertiseContact UsManage AccountJobsPress CenterCondé Nast StoreUser AgreementPrivacy PolicyYour California Privacy Rights© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad ChoicesSelect international siteUnited StatesLargeChevronItaliaJapónCzech Republic & SlovakiaFacebookXPinterestYouTubeInstagramTiktok

The United Kingdom’s Foreign Office has initiated a significant crackdown on a $20 billion cryptocurrency marketplace, Xinbi Guarantee, marking a new phase in the global effort to dismantle cybercrime networks. This action, spearheaded by Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty, includes financial sanctions against Xinbi and the penalization of multiple individuals linked to industrial-scale scam compounds operating primarily in Cambodia, specifically the #8 Park compound. A £9 million penthouse associated with sanctioned individuals was also seized. The core of the intervention centers on Xinbi, an online marketplace operating through Telegram channels, which has been identified as facilitating billions in illicit cryptocurrency transactions and, critically, providing the technological infrastructure and support necessary for various online scam operations. Prior analysis by Elliptic, led by Tom Robinson, revealed that Xinbi had processed at least $8.4 billion in transactions since 2022, with the vast majority likely originating from stolen funds obtained through online scams. Xinbi’s activities extend beyond simply facilitating transactions; it has been implicated in selling the technology, personal data, and money-laundering services required to operate these scams. Notably, Xinbi demonstrated resilience following a takedown by Telegram, rapidly rebuilding its presence and diversifying its infrastructure to mitigate disruption. Current estimates, provided by Robinson, place the total volume of transactions processed by the Xinbi ecosystem, including merchants and infrastructure, at $19.7 billion. The sanctions aim to impede Xinbi’s ability to spend or exchange cryptocurrency derived from these illicit activities. This coordinated action follows similar efforts by the United States, targeting Cambodian-linked scamming operations, and reflects a broader international strategy to combat cybercrime. The continued operation of these scam centers, often employing tens of thousands of victims forced to work out of compounds across Southeast Asia, highlights the scale of the problem and the crucial role of supporting marketplaces like Xinbi in enabling these operations. The FBI’s Deputy Assistant Director for the Criminal Division, Gregory Heeb, emphasizes the underreporting of scam losses, with reported figures increasing significantly since 2019. Karen Seifert, Director of the Scam Center Strike Force within the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, underscores the challenge of disrupting the money-laundering network that supports these scams, often operating independently of the compound operations themselves. The broader challenge is compounded by the resilience of Asian money-laundering organizations, who have established themselves as global market leaders and demonstrated an ability to adapt and rebuild after sanctions or takedowns. Threat researcher at Infoblox and former UN Office on Drugs and Crime official, John Wojcik, highlights the vulnerability not in the scam operations themselves, but in the underground banking and money-laundering infrastructure that fuels their growth, noting the significant role these organizations play globally. This intervention represents a step forward but is likely to be part of a continuing cycle of disruption and adaptation as criminal networks evolve their tactics.