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The US Treasury just put a target on one of the largest illicit marketplaces most people have never heard of. On September 9, the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based operation that functioned as a kind of dark Amazon for cybercriminals, facilitating money laundering, fraud, and scams aimed squarely at Americans.
OFAC designated Xinbi as a “significant transnational criminal organization” under Executive Order 13581, a classification that puts it in the same regulatory penalty box as drug cartels and arms traffickers. Two affiliated companies, Singapore-based SafeW Technology Co., Ltd. and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology Co., Ltd., were sanctioned alongside it for providing material support through the XinbiPay/NewPay wallet service.
The scale of the operation
Xinbi Guarantee wasn’t a small-time hustle. Blockchain analytics firms estimate the platform processed somewhere between $19.7 billion and $24.2 billion in transaction volume since it launched around 2022.
The marketplace operated primarily through Telegram channels, functioning as a peer-to-peer escrow service. Buyers and sellers of stolen data, scam toolkits, and money laundering services could transact with a layer of trust typically reserved for legitimate e-commerce.
The Department of Justice didn’t just watch from the sidelines. Its Scam Center Strike Force moved in with targeted asset seizures on the same day, restraining over $52 million in digital assets in a single 24-hour blitz. Total seizures connected to the broader enforcement effort reportedly reached around $938 million.
International coordination and prior action
The US wasn’t the first to move against Xinbi. The United Kingdom sanctioned the platform back on March 26, 2026, under its Global Human Rights sanctions regime. The UK’s action highlighted Xinbi’s connections to scam operations in Southeast Asia, including alleged human rights abuses in Cambodia, where victims have been trafficked and forced to work in scam compounds.
Xinbi served as critical infrastructure for these operations, providing the financial rails that allowed scam proceeds to be laundered and distributed. The platform’s role wasn’t just enabling fraud. It was, according to authorities, an integral part of a supply chain that included human trafficking.
The Treasury’s action also aligns with an executive order on cybercrime issued by President Trump in March 2026, signaling that dismantling digital crime networks has become a stated priority across multiple government agencies.
A resilient adversary
After previous crackdowns hit similar platforms, Xinbi shifted operations to alternative messaging services and payment systems, maintaining its massive illicit financial flows with minimal disruption.
The cryptocurrency dimension is central to how these platforms function. Digital assets provide the speed, pseudonymity, and cross-border capability that make large-scale money laundering operationally feasible. That said, the blockchain’s transparency is also what enabled analytics firms to estimate Xinbi’s volume in the first place, and how authorities identified the wallet services run by SafeW Technology and Anwen Technology as key nodes in the network.
What the crackdown signals
The practical impact for anyone in the crypto space is straightforward: any wallet or address associated with Xinbi, SafeW, or Anwen is now sanctioned property. US persons are prohibited from transacting with these entities, and any assets they hold within US jurisdiction are frozen.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
English (US) ·