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The world’s largest illicit online marketplace keeps growing following the launch of its own crypto products, according to Elliptic.
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Huione Guarantee, which has been labeled as “the largest online illicit marketplace to have ever operated” by crypto compliance firm Elliptic, has grown its monthly inflows by 51% in just half a year — boosted by its own USD stablecoin launch in September.
“Our analysis shows that Huione Guarantee’s growth is accelerating, with over $24 billion in transactions to date,” reported Elliptic on Jan. 14.
In July, Elliptic alleged that Huione Guarantee operated an online marketplace with a substantial portion linked to money laundering and cyber scams.
In its latest report, Elliptic said that monthly inflows have increased by 51% since then, and the number of users has soared to more than 900,000.
“These figures indicate that Huione Guarantee is already the largest online illicit marketplace to have ever operated,” said Elliptic.
The Huione Group recently launched a range of crypto-related products, including a US dollar stablecoin, a blockchain, a crypto exchange and a messaging app, Elliptic reported.
Value of cryptocurrency received by wallets used by Huione Guarantee and its vendors. Source: Elliptic
Its growth has been boosted by the September launch of USDH, a dollar-backed stablecoin specifically designed to avoid regulatory oversight and asset-freezing capabilities that are present in other stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT (USDT).
The stablecoin was launched after Tether had frozen one of Huione Pay’s USDT accounts in July due to links with the North Korean Lazarus Group.
USDH was issued on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain and Tron. However, the illicit stablecoin is not to be confused with the dollar-pegged asset USDH from Solana-based DeFi protocol Hubble.
Huione recently launched its own blockchain called Huione Chain, or Xone chain, and a decentralized exchange allowing USDH to be swapped for other crypto assets. The platform also launched its own chat service to make it less reliant on third-party apps like Telegram.
Related: Scammers ditch ‘elaborate’ crypto Ponzis for pig butchering: Chainalysis
The platform also rebranded from Huione Guarantee to Haowang Guarantee in an attempt to distance itself from Huione Group following the Elliptic exposé.
The cybersecurity researchers found “thousands of vendors” offering “money laundering services, stolen personal data, technology and other items necessary to conduct online fraud on an industrial scale.”
Elliptic concluded that the platform has “become a key enabler of cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia” before adding:
“Perhaps no other single entity bears as much responsibility as Huione Guarantee for the global cyber scam epidemic, which has ruined countless lives.”
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This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
