In this article, the team at Elliptic writes about the rise of a new generation of illicit online marketplaces known as “guarantee marketplaces,” which now primarily operate through Telegram. While early adopters of cryptocurrency in the 2010s were darknet markets like Silk Road and Alphabay accessed via Tor, criminals have migrated to more accessible platforms like Telegram, reaching far larger audiences. These modern marketplaces are particularly popular among Chinese-speaking scammers, offering services that support large-scale fraud operations across China and Southeast Asia.
Guarantee marketplaces don’t sell goods directly but act as hubs for individual merchants, who advertise and transact anonymously with customers. The marketplaces use features such as merchant deposits, escrow services, and bots to build trust and minimize fraud—creating a surprisingly efficient infrastructure for illegal activities. Transactions are conducted almost exclusively in Tether (USDT), ensuring speed and traceability avoidance. This system enables online scammers to outsource nearly every part of a fraud operation, from acquiring victim data to laundering money.
The most prominent example, Huione Guarantee, operated under the umbrella of the Cambodian-based Huione Group and reportedly facilitated over $27 billion in transactions since 2021—making it the largest illicit crypto marketplace ever. Elliptic’s investigation linked Huione Guarantee to Huione Pay and revealed its central role in enabling global scams. The second largest, Xinbi Guarantee, mirrored Huione’s model and handled over $8.4 billion in USDT. Its marketplace included not only scam-related services but also alarming offerings such as coercion-for-hire and surrogacy-for-sale, illustrating the breadth and moral depravity of these anonymous, crypto-fueled platforms…