Secret Service Freezes $52.8 Million in Crypto Tied to Telegram Bazaar Behind Global Scams — SkimNews
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- U.S. Secret Service froze $52.8 million in USDT across 52 wallets tied to Xinbi Guarantee on September 8, working with blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, which said it had been tracking the wallet infrastructure 'for several years.'
- Treasury's OFAC designated Xinbi a 'significant transnational criminal organization' on September 9 — the same category used for drug cartels — alongside Singapore-based SafeW Technology and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology for supporting its operations; the UK had already sanctioned Xinbi in March.
- DOJ's Scam Center Strike Force has seized roughly $938 million in scam-linked cryptocurrency since launching in November 2025, and on the same day as the Xinbi freeze deployed agents to Madagascar to dismantle 13 Chinese-run scam compounds and process evidence from nearly 400 arrestees.
- Xinbi Guarantee and its merchants processed at least $24 billion in transactions since 2022, according to Elliptic, making it the second-largest illicit online marketplace ever tracked after Huione Guarantee ($31 billion, which Telegram shut down in May 2025).
- Xinbi called the freeze 'arbitrary,' pledged to compensate customers, and has already swapped about $2.8 million from USDT into USDD through a decentralized exchange — a stablecoin launched by Tron founder Justin Sun marketed as having no central issuer able to freeze wallets.
- The catch on the USDD pivot: USDD markets itself as decentralized, but part of its own reserves are backed by USDT — the very asset with the freeze switch Xinbi is trying to escape.
- Xinbi functions as a Telegram-based escrow marketplace where vendors post crypto deposits so buyers can be reimbursed if cheated — a model that sells stolen personal data, money-laundering services, and tools for 'pig butchering' romance-investment scams.
Why it matters: Law enforcement's ability to freeze stablecoins like USDT remains its strongest lever against crypto-based fraud, but Xinbi's pivot to USDD — a stablecoin marketed as freeze-resistant — shows criminals actively adapting in real time. The catch buried in the data: USDD's own reserves are partly backed by USDT, the very asset it's fleeing, limiting how safe that escape route really is.
Ask SkimNews
