2 massive black market services blocked by Telegram, messaging app says

By Raphael Satter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two sprawling digital black markets operating on the communications platform Telegram have been removed, the service said on Thursday.

Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee - Chinese-language markets known for serving cybercriminals and scammers - appeared to be inactive on Thursday.

Telegram provided little further detail in a message to Reuters except to say that "criminal activities like scamming or money laundering are forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and are always removed whenever discovered."

Blockchain research firm Elliptic said the two markets had collectively facilitated more than $35 billion in transactions since 2021, many multiples higher than other black markets such as the drug-focused Silk Road, which drew international notoriety for distributing drugs over the dark web.

"This is a big blow for online fraudsters, who relied on these markets for stolen data, money laundering services and telecoms infrastructure," Elliptic said in a statement.

In a brief English-language statement posted to its website, Huione Guarantee - which at one point rebranded as "Haowang Guarantee" - confirmed that it had been blocked by Telegram starting Tuesday and would "cease operations from now on."

The firm did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Reuters could not immediately locate contact information for Xinbi.

Huione Guarantee is a subsidiary of Cambodia-based Huione Group, which also owns Huione Pay and Huione Crypto, U.S. officials have alleged. Last year, Reuters revealed that Huione Pay had received cryptocurrency then worth more than $150,000 from a digital wallet used by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus.

The report was followed earlier this month by a U.S. move to bar the Huione Group from the U.S. financial system. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Huione Group was the "marketplace of choice for malicious cyber actors."

The Huione Group did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Richard Chang)