- Authorities, with support from messaging platform Telegram, have dismantled the largest darknet marketplace ever uncovered.
- The operation involved international law enforcement agencies working in coordination.
- This marks a major breakthrough in the global fight against digital black markets and cybercrime.
A Marketplace Hidden in Plain Sight Of Telegram
For years, this huge darknet marketplace existed beneath layers of encrypted networks like Telegram making illegal trades from narcotics and firearms to fake documents and hacked information. It is estimated to have had more than 2 million users and, in terms of dollars, millions of transactions per day, and the operation was immense.
What most surprised researchers was the extent to which the platform’s communication, coordination, and even marketing were conducted through Telegram. The popular messaging app, with its high level of encryption and broad user base, had become a go to tool for admins and vendors on the darknet to communicate with buyers anonymously and securely.
How Telegram Played a Role
In contrast to past crackdowns in which law enforcement officers had to wait for slow and clandestine infiltration, this time Telegram itself played a more proactive role. The platform, officials claimed, responded to several government requests and took action to close down accounts, channels, and groups associated with the marketplace.
A Telegram spokesperson said, “We have a zero tolerance approach to illegal activities on our platform. Once we confirmed darknet related activities were going on, we moved quickly to take down the related infrastructure.”
This partnership is a departure from the way tech firms have been pushed to help criminal investigations without compromising the privacy of users on a large scale.
Taking Down Chinese Darknet on Telegram
A large Chinese darknet marketplace under suspicion of supporting crypto scams and cybercrime has been closed by the Telegram messaging platform, on which it existed.
The world’s biggest illicit marketplace on the internet, Haowang Guarantee, previously Huione Guarantee, announced that it will close after Telegram banned thousands of related accounts on May 13.
Because all our NFTs, channels and groups were shut down by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will stop operating from today on,” the notice on the marketplace website stated.
According to a Wired report, that meant banning thousands of accounts and usernames which were the support infrastructure for the crypto crime marketplace and its sellers.
Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn informed the outlet, “all communities previously reported to us by WIRED or featured in reports published by Elliptic have all been taken down,” adding that “activities such as scamming or money laundering are against Telegram’s terms of service and are always deleted whenever found out.
Privacy vs. Security Debate
The case has again put the privacy vs. security issue into the spotlight. Whereas Telegram has defended its encryption tools for a long time as a necessity to maintain free speech and individual safety, critics hold that the same resources have been abused by malicious parties.
Human rights campaigners fear that coerced collaboration with the authorities will be a recipe for disastrous precedents. Nevertheless, the incident has led many to believe that the technology platforms can effectively balance privacy protection and crime suppression.
Xinbi Guarantee growing
Another Telegram based dark marketplace, Xinbi Guarantee, has been discovered by Elliptic, which found thousands of crypto addresses belonging to the merchants on it.
On May 13, the company stated that it has witnessed $8.4 billion in transactions till date, but that needs to be taken into account as “lower bounds of the true volume of transactions on the platform.”
Xinbi was traced to a Colorado based business which was incorporated in 2022 but was listed as delinquent in January 2025.
Black markets like these have revealed a “China based underground banking system,” centered on stablecoins and crypto payments, that is being exploited for money laundering on a “significant scale,” Elliptic said.
Also Read : Pi Coin Down 33%, What Went Wrong?
