Telegram’s May crackdown on the infamous Huione Guarantee marketplace was short-lived in its impact, as successor platforms like Tudou Guarantee, Shuangying, and Fully Light have quickly filled the void - processing tens of billions in illicit transactions, according to new data from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
Despite Telegram’s sweeping takedown of Huione Guarantee on May 13 - hailed at the time as a major blow to one of the largest crypto-fueled dark markets ever - the illicit trade in stolen data, money laundering services, and scam facilitation has rapidly reconstituted itself across at least 30 new Telegram-based platforms. Many of these marketplaces have already eclipsed their predecessor in scale, exposing the resiliency and adaptive nature of Asia’s sprawling crypto scam ecosystem.
Tudou Guarantee, in particular, emerged as the primary successor. As of June 15, Elliptic recorded more than 300,000 transactions on Tudou, up from just over 200,000 a month prior. The shift in activity was almost immediate - Huione’s transaction volume collapsed to near zero by May 11, only days before Telegram’s ban took effect. Elliptic’s data shows that most of Huione’s merchant activity resumed almost seamlessly on Tudou, where the same vendors now continue to advertise and transact in Tether.
“The sudden transition from Huione to Tudou underscores how deeply embedded and agile these illicit ecosystems have become,” Elliptic said in its June 24 report. “Many of the merchants are the same, and the services - stolen identities, money laundering, and scam infrastructure - remain unchanged.”
$27 Billion in Illicit Activity Resurfaces
While Telegram’s move dismantled Huione’s massive infrastructure - reportedly the largest dark market in history, exceeding even Silk Road and AlphaBay - it failed to destroy the network itself. According to Elliptic, the volume of stablecoin transactions conducted across successor platforms now matches that of Huione Guarantee during its peak operations. Cumulatively, Elliptic estimates these dark markets are handling roughly $27 billion in transactions.
Telegram’s enforcement campaign, which included the termination of thousands of accounts and channels, was praised for its scope but ultimately ineffective in the long term without sustained action, researchers argue.
One reason for the limited impact lies in Huione’s own contingency planning. According to Elliptic, the operators of Huione had already taken a 30% ownership stake in Tudou Guarantee as early as December 2024 - effectively building in an escape hatch to keep operations alive if the main platform was compromised.
“This strategic investment reveals the degree of foresight in the organization,” the report notes. “It also explains why the transition was so frictionless.”
Successor Markets Proliferate on Telegram
Beyond Tudou, other platforms such as Shuangying and Fully Light have seen transaction volumes more than triple in just a few weeks. Shuangying surged from approximately 40,000 to 110,000 transactions between May and mid-June, while Fully Light grew from 20,000 to over 80,000 during the same period.
These platforms operate similarly to Huione, offering “guarantee” services that enable anonymous escrow-based transactions via USDT on the Tron blockchain. They are popular among scam operators for facilitating so-called “pig butchering” schemes - a long-con romance and investment scam strategy that has claimed thousands of victims globally, particularly in the U.S. and Europe.
Vendors on these platforms openly market their offerings for such scams, with services including identity document forgery, SIM card provisioning, crypto account rentals, and digital infrastructure that allow cybercriminals to appear legitimate while targeting victims abroad.
Elliptic researchers describe the environment as “an industrial-scale operation” where Telegram serves as both a marketplace and a communications hub for criminal organizations, especially those operating from Southeast Asia.
Tether’s USDT Remains Preferred Currency
All of the marketplaces examined rely on USDT - particularly on the TRON blockchain - as the primary medium of exchange. The use of stablecoins allows criminals to transact with speed, finality, and relative price stability, while Tron’s low fees and high throughput offer practical advantages for bulk payments.
While the USDT issuer Tether has previously cooperated with law enforcement and frozen funds linked to sanctioned entities, the report did not indicate whether any recent action had been taken to block wallets associated with Tudou or other platforms. The lack of proactive stablecoin tracking and enforcement was cited by Elliptic as a key enabler of the scam economy’s resilience.
The revival of illicit markets following Huione’s takedown raises fundamental questions about the effectiveness of enforcement measures on centralized platforms like Telegram.
“Unless there is sustained, systematic removal of these marketplaces and the financial infrastructure that supports them, we’re likely to see the cycle repeat,” said Elliptic. The firm urged Telegram, Tether, and regulators to implement more comprehensive mechanisms to detect and dismantle criminal operations at scale.
Despite global crackdowns and mounting public awareness of “pig butchering” and other online scams, Asia’s crypto-fueled fraud ecosystem has proven highly adaptive. This is partly due to the lack of regional cooperation among law enforcement, weak digital crime laws in some jurisdictions, and the sheer profitability of the scams themselves - many of which operate out of high-capacity scam compounds in countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos.
In May 2024, an Interpol report estimated that these compounds held tens of thousands of coerced workers from across Asia, forced to carry out online scams targeting victims globally. While Telegram’s action against Huione marked a rare enforcement milestone, it also exposed the difficulty of dismantling a cybercriminal economy that has deep financial, geographic, and technological roots.
What Comes Next?
The Elliptic report concludes that unless stablecoin issuers and messaging platforms adopt stronger Know-Your-Customer and monitoring tools, scam marketplaces will continue to multiply. More than 30 successor platforms are already actively operating on Telegram, with new ones emerging weekly.
Industry participants and analysts are increasingly calling for international policy coordination, noting that financial sanctions, wallet tracking, and cross-border takedowns must evolve to match the scale and speed of crypto-based criminal networks.
For now, platforms like Tudou Guarantee are not only surviving - but thriving - despite increased scrutiny.