Tether has frozen about $39.3 million in USDT held across 10 Tron addresses connected to Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language guarantee marketplace that investigators have linked to large-scale illicit activity. The frozen balances were identified by blockchain tracing platform MistTrack, which said the wallets were funded unevenly.
The move targets addresses tied to a platform that researchers say has handled billions of dollars in crypto transactions. Xinbi Guarantee has been described by TRM Labs as a major illicit marketplace with links to scam operations, money laundering networks and cybercrime groups operating in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Wallet balances concentrated in a handful of addresses
MistTrack’s data showed that the largest of the frozen Tron addresses held roughly 10.78 million USDT. Three other addresses contained about 8 million USDT each, indicating that much of the total was concentrated in a small number of wallets rather than spread evenly across all 10 addresses.
Based on those findings, MistTrack characterized Tether’s action as another potential clampdown on illicit escrow-style services that have operated through Telegram-based networks. The company did not present the freeze as an isolated event, but as part of a broader pattern of enforcement affecting this type of marketplace.
Investigators tie Xinbi to extensive illicit activity
TRM Labs has connected Xinbi Guarantee to scam operations, money laundering networks and cybercrime groups. According to the firm, the marketplace emerged on Telegram around 2022 and grew into one of Southeast Asia’s largest illicit crypto platforms.
TRM Labs said Xinbi has processed approximately $24.2 billion in total transaction volume since its creation. That figure includes $12.1 billion in observed inflows since May 2025, underscoring how active the platform remained even after scrutiny intensified.
Telegram takedowns did not stop the marketplace
In May 2025, Telegram removed thousands of channels associated with Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee after researchers documented their activities. The takedown was a significant platform-level enforcement step against networks that had used Telegram as an organizing and transaction layer.
But Xinbi resumed operations soon afterward, according to the source material. It also shifted parts of its business away from Telegram, including a migration to SafeW and the introduction of NewPay, also referred to as XinbiPay, a crypto wallet that did not require KYC checks.
Activity reportedly kept rising after enforcement
Researchers said Xinbi continued operating despite those measures. In the months after Telegram’s May 2025 ban, the platform’s daily inflows nearly doubled, even as activity linked to other guarantor services declined.
TRM Labs said Xinbi’s transaction volume kept increasing after the restrictions and reached $24.2 billion by March 2026. The newly frozen USDT addresses therefore represent a targeted enforcement step against a platform that, by researchers’ account, has so far continued to adapt and remain active despite earlier disruptions.
Source: crypto.news