The United States Secret Service froze $52.8 million in the stablecoin USDT across 52 wallets linked to Xinbi Guarantee, an illicit marketplace operating on Telegram. The operation was made possible by intelligence provided by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, coordinated with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which formally designated the platform as a transnational criminal organization.
Xinbi functioned as an escrow service facilitating the laundering of proceeds from global fraud schemes such as pig butchering, having processed more than $24 billion since 2022. This action delivers a major blow to the underground financial infrastructure operating on Telegram and reinforces federal agencies’ ability to track flows on public blockchains, forcing cybercriminals to migrate toward alternative decentralized assets.
Denouncing the measure as arbitrary, Xinbi operators began converting remaining funds into USDD to evade Tether’s freezing function. US authorities, through the Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force, will maintain on-chain monitoring and proceed with legal actions to permanently forfeit the blocked assets.
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