Huione Guarantee (Haowang Guarantee)

Huione Guarantee, launched in 2021 under Cambodia's Huione Group conglomerate and later rebranded Haowang Guarantee, was a Chinese-language, Telegram-based "guarantee" (escrow) marketplace selling money-laundering services, stolen data, and fraud tooling to pig-butchering and cyber-scam operators. Elliptic documented over $27 billion in USDT-denominated transactions since 2021 — a total it later revised upward to roughly $31 billion by June 2026 — and called it "the largest illicit online marketplace to have ever operated." The group also spans Huione Pay PLC, Huione Crypto, and a proprietary US-dollar stablecoin reported by Elliptic.

On May 1, 2025, FinCEN found Huione Group to be a financial institution of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, citing at least $4 billion in illicit proceeds laundered between August 2021 and January 2025 — including at least $37 million from North Korean cyber heists and $36 million from crypto investment (pig-butchering) scams. On May 13, 2025, Telegram — acting on Elliptic intelligence — banned Haowang Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee ($8.4 billion in USDT since 2022), a combined $35 billion+. FinCEN's final rule severing Huione Group from US correspondent banking was published October 16, 2025 and took effect November 17, 2025.

The ecosystem survived the bans. Huione had bought a 30% stake in Tudou Guarantee in December 2024; Tudou absorbed displaced users and processed over $12 billion before effectively ceasing public Telegram transactions in January 2026, while Xinbi Guarantee recovered and regrew following Telegram's intervention, with Elliptic reporting a similar number of guarantee markets still in operation. In 2026 US action continued: on June 23, 2026 the DOJ (Operation Riptide) seized a cloud account hosting backend infrastructure for Huione Group subsidiaries, and the same day FinCEN issued a proposed rule (NPRM, published in the Federal Register June 25, 2026) to extend the special measure to H-Pay Service PLC — which had assumed Huione Pay's role after the National Bank of Cambodia revoked Huione Pay's license in March 2025. Note: FinCEN's $4 billion measures laundered illicit proceeds, while Elliptic's figures (~$27–31 billion) measure total marketplace flows.

Sources: [DOJ press release, June 23, 2026](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-seizes-backend-infrastructure-used-huione-group-money-laundering-services) · [Federal Register final rule, Oct 16, 2025](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/16/2025-19571/imposition-of-special-measure-regarding-huione-group-as-a-foreign-financial-institution-of-primary) · [Elliptic on the Telegram takedown](https://www.elliptic.co/blog/elliptic-data-telegram-market-takedown) · [Elliptic on the Section 311 action](https://www.elliptic.co/blog/us-treasury-takes-311-action-against-huione-group-what-this-means-for-you) · [Elliptic on the FBI case, June 2026](https://www.elliptic.co/blog/behind-the-fbi-case-against-huione) · [The Hacker News on Tudou's halt, Jan 2026](https://thehackernews.com/2026/01/tudou-guarantee-marketplace-halts.html)

**Official action:** FinCEN Section 311 special measure (finding May 1, 2025; final rule effective Nov 17, 2025; proposed extension to H-Pay via NPRM June 23, 2026); DOJ backend-infrastructure seizure (Operation Riptide) June 23, 2026