Telegram Cuts Off Haowang Guarantee—Another Crypto Scam Bites the Dust
Messaging giant Telegram just axed another crypto crime ring—because nothing says ’decentralized future’ like platforms constantly cleaning up after bad actors.
Haowang Guarantee’s alleged Ponzi scheme promised moon-shot returns, but delivered only the classic crypto combo: vaporized funds and a trail of angry ’investors.’
While blockchain purists preach self-custody, the rest of us note the irony: even in Web3, someone’s always playing babysitter.
Haowang spin-offs fill the void
The collapse of Haowang hasn’t stopped the system from mutating.
Elliptic’s latest report shows that Xinbi Guarantee, another Telegram-based marketplace with 233,000 users, remains active after processing at least $8.4 billion in questionable funds.
Some of Xinbi’s vendors explicitly advertise laundering funds from “pig butchering” scams and chat-based fraud targeting Westerners.
Elliptic also traced funds from the $235 million WazirX hack, attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, directly to wallets linked to Xinbi and Huione.
The firm says Haowang’s operators may now pivot to a third black market brand, Tudou Guarantee, already seeing a surge in users.