US restrains $938 million in scam-linked crypto after action against Xinbi Guarantee

One-day action lifted the total near $1 billion

The Justice Department said approximately $52 million in cryptocurrency involved in scam money laundering was restrained in a single day. That pushed the Scam Center Strike Force’s cumulative restrained total to about $938 million.

The department had previously reported more than $580 million in cryptocurrency frozen, seized, or forfeited by the strike force. Those figures cover multiple investigations rather than a single case, while the Sept. 9 action focused specifically on Xinbi and vendors allegedly linked to scam operations.

Investigators said they traced funds from US victims to vendors that advertised laundering services through Telegram. The warrant describes Xinbi as a marketplace that allegedly used an escrow model, holding buyers’ payments until vendors completed their services.

Court approved channel seizure and wallet action

A federal court authorized the seizure of Xinbi’s Telegram channels on Sept. 7, according to the Justice Department. Authorities also seized two payment wallets containing about $12 million.

In addition, law enforcement sought restraint of 47 more cryptocurrency wallets that officials said were believed to be connected to money laundering on Xinbi’s network and to vendors who had worked for scammers. The department presented those steps as part of a wider effort to disrupt the infrastructure behind fraud, rather than only the end operators.

Treasury ties Xinbi to a wider regional network

Treasury said Xinbi’s marketplace and related platforms handled more than $24 billion in transactions since its launch around 2022. The agency said the activity primarily supported transactions in Southeast Asia.

Treasury further stated that North Korean hackers and sanctioned entities had reportedly used the platform. Reported users included Jin Bei Group and entities within the sanctioned Prince Group, a Cambodia-based network previously targeted by US and UK authorities in October 2025 over allegations of large-scale fraud and human trafficking.

The agency described the latest designations as an extension of earlier enforcement against that broader network.

Supporting companies were designated

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Xinbi Guarantee and two companies it said supported the marketplace on Sept. 9. Treasury identified them as Singapore-based Safew Technology and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology, describing them as providers of messaging and payment applications used in Xinbi’s operations.

Treasury said Xinbi had already begun moving merchant and laundering networks to an encrypted messaging application around June 2025 as scrutiny increased. It also said the platform launched a crypto payment app and digital wallet developed by Anwen.

Officials alleged that services sold through Xinbi included custom investment scam websites, linking the vendor network to fake crypto platforms used to solicit deposits from victims.

Next steps in the broader crackdown

US authorities have framed the Xinbi case as one piece of a larger effort targeting Chinese-language money laundering markets and overseas scam compounds. Chainalysis estimated those networks processed $16.1 billion in illicit cryptocurrency during 2025, though that figure did not include guarantee platforms such as Xinbi and Huione.

Separately, the Justice Department said the strike force sent investigators to Madagascar to assist local authorities targeting 13 Chinese-run scam compounds. During the two-week deployment, the team helped process more than 3,200 electronic devices and opened investigations based on interviews with nearly 400 arrestees, indicating that further cases could follow from that work.