The U.S. Secret Service froze $52.8 million in cryptocurrency tied to Xinbi Guarantee on September 8, a Chinese-language marketplace on Telegram that sells the tools scammers need to defraud people worldwide.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic provided the intelligence that made the freeze possible. “Elliptic has been tracking Xinbi and its wallet infrastructure for several years, and our intelligence directly enabled the freezing action, as well as the sanctions imposed on Xinbi today by the United States,” the company said.
Fifty-Two Wallets Frozen
The freeze hit 52 wallets holding USDT, Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, beginning at 8am UTC on September 8. Two of those wallets, containing roughly $12 million, were seized outright under a warrant unsealed by the Department of Justice. The rest were frozen pending further action.
Xinbi is not a marketplace in the normal sense. It is an escrow system where vendors post crypto deposits so buyers trust they will get what they paid for, from stolen personal data to money-laundering services.
Billions in Transactions
Since 2022, Xinbi and its merchants have processed at least $24 billion in transactions, according to Elliptic. That makes it the second-largest illicit online marketplace ever tracked.
Only Huione Guarantee moved more, processing $31 billion before Telegram shut it down in May 2025. Xinbi absorbed much of that traffic once its predecessor vanished.
Much of the money flowing through platforms like this starts with “pig butchering,” where a stranger builds a fake romance or friendship online, then convinces the victim to pour savings into a bogus investment app.
OFAC Sanctions
Treasury’s OFAC designated Xinbi a “significant transnational criminal organization” on September 9, the same category used for drug cartels. Two more firms, Singapore-based SafeW Technology and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology, were sanctioned alongside it for supporting Xinbi’s operations.
The UK had already sanctioned Xinbi in March.
Xinbi Fights Back
Xinbi posted a statement condemning the “arbitrary freezing” of its funds and promised to compensate customers.
The marketplace is shifting away from USDT toward USDD, a stablecoin launched by Tron founder Justin Sun with no central issuer able to freeze wallets. It has swapped about $2.8 million of its remaining USDT into USDD through a decentralized exchange.
There is a catch. USDD markets itself as decentralized, but part of its reserves are backed by USDT—the very asset with the freeze switch Xinbi is trying to escape.
On-chain data from Bitrace shows one Xinbi address, activated September 8, was frozen again after $1.8 million in USDT had already escaped.
Madagascar Raids
Wednesday’s action was part of a bigger day for the DOJ’s Scam Center Strike Force. Agents deployed to Madagascar helped local authorities take down 13 Chinese-run scam compounds and process evidence from nearly 400 arrestees, including more than 3,200 seized devices.
Key Numbers
- $52.8 million frozen across 52 wallets
- $12 million seized outright
- $24 billion in transactions since 2022
- $938 million seized by the Strike Force since November 2025
- $2.8 million swapped into USDD
The Strike Force has seized roughly $938 million in scam-linked cryptocurrency since it launched in November 2025.
Xinbi’s outstanding balance is still on the board.
Source: decrypt.co
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