The U.S. Secret Service froze $52.8 million in cryptocurrency linked to Xinbi Guarantee on September 8, 2026, working with blockchain analytics firm Elliptic to identify and freeze 52 wallets holding Tether’s USDT. Two of those wallets, containing roughly $12 million, were seized outright under a warrant unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice, while the rest were frozen pending further action.
On September 9, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Xinbi Guarantee as a significant transnational criminal organization, and sanctioned Singapore-based SafeW Technology and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology for supporting its operations. The UK had already sanctioned Xinbi in March.
Xinbi is a Chinese-language Telegram marketplace that operates as an escrow system for scam tools, stolen personal data, and money laundering services. Elliptic said it has been tracking Xinbi and its wallet infrastructure for several years, and its intelligence directly enabled the freezing action and sanctions. Since 2022, Xinbi and its merchants have processed at least $24 billion in transactions, making it the second-largest illicit online marketplace ever tracked. Only Huione Guarantee moved more, processing $31 billion before Telegram shut it down in May 2025; Xinbi absorbed much of that traffic.
The marketplace called the freeze arbitrary and promised to compensate customers. It has already moved about $2.8 million from USDT into USDD, a stablecoin launched by Tron founder Justin Sun that lacks a central issuer able to freeze wallets. However, USDD’s reserves are partly backed by USDT, the very asset with the freeze mechanism Xinbi is trying to escape.
The action was part of a broader push by the DOJ’s Scam Center Strike Force, which has seized roughly $938 million in scam-linked cryptocurrency since launching in November 2025. On the same day, it also deployed agents to Madagascar to help local authorities take down 13 Chinese-run scam compounds and process evidence from nearly 400 arrestees.
