Chinese crypto scammers on Telegram fuel the world's largest black market

  When black markets for drugs, weapons and other illegal goods first emerged on the dark web more than a decade ago, cryptocurrencies and the technical sophistication of the Tor anonymity tool were seen as key to conducting billions of dollars worth of illegal transactions online with impunity.

But now, all that seems outdated. In 2025, to escape the tens of billions of dollars in black market crypto transactions, all it takes is a messaging platform willing to accommodate fraudsters and human traffickers, the tenacity to continually reopen channels and accounts after they're blocked, and Mandarin language skills.

 that the market ecosystem for Chinese-speaking crypto fraudsters operating on the Telegram messaging platform is now the largest in history, according to the latest analysis from crypto tracking firm Elliptic.

Despite a brief dip after Telegram blocked the two largest marketplaces in early 2025, the current top two marketplaces, Tudou Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee, together facilitate nearly US$2 billion per month (Rp33.5 trillion) in money laundering transactions, the sale of fraudulent tools such as stolen data, fake investment sites, and AI-based deepfake tools, as well as other black market services ranging from surrogacy to teenage prostitution.