Tether has frozen roughly $39.3 million in USDT held across 10 Tron addresses linked to Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language guarantee marketplace that blockchain investigators have tied to billions of dollars in crypto transactions.
Summary
- Tether froze roughly $39.3 million in USDT across 10 Tron addresses linked to Xinbi Guarantee.
- MistTrack first reported the freeze, with the affected wallets holding balances ranging from 1 USDT to about 10.8 million USDT.
- TRM Labs has described Xinbi as one of Southeast Asia’s largest illicit crypto marketplaces, with approximately $24.2 billion in transactions since 2022.
- The action follows previous USDT freezes involving funds linked to Huione Guarantee, another Telegram based guarantee marketplace.
MistTrack, the onchain tracing platform developed by SlowMist, first reported the freeze, saying Tether had blocked approximately 39,273,713 USDT across the 10 addresses.
The freeze adds to a series of actions involving USDT addresses connected to guarantee marketplaces operating through messaging platforms, including Huione Guarantee. MistTrack described the latest action as another potential crackdown on illicit Telegram-based escrow platforms.
Tether freezes $39.3 million linked to Xinbi Guarantee
The balances identified by MistTrack were spread unevenly across the 10 Tron addresses. Data shared by the tracing platform showed that the largest address held about 10.78 million USDT, while three others contained roughly 8 million USDT each.
Another wallet held around 2.04 million USDT, while two addresses contained about 1.28 million and 1.17 million USDT. Three of the addresses held only 1 USDT each at the time represented in MistTrack’s data.
MistTrack’s transaction map linked one of the largest wallets, beginning with TWPma8x, directly to Xinbi Guarantee. The map showed transfers into the address from multiple wallets labeled “Guarantee Merchant,” while funds were sent onward to another Xinbi Guarantee address.
The tracing firm did not identify a law enforcement request behind the freeze in its public statement. Tether had not publicly detailed the reason for targeting the addresses at the time of the report.
The action follows several cases in which the stablecoin issuer has restricted USDT held on Tron. In June, more than $72 million was frozen after onchain investigator ZachXBT traced a wallet that had received 120.2 million USDT and moved funds through exchanges and cross-chain routes.
A month later, crypto.news previously reported that Tether had frozen USDT balances across 131 Tron wallets linked by Chainalysis to ISIS-K after U.S. sanctions authorities added more than 100 crypto identifiers associated with the group.
Earlier data compiled by BlockSec found that Tether blacklisted 4,163 addresses during 2025, freezing $1.26 billion in USDT across Ethereum and Tron. More than $514 million across 370 addresses was frozen during one 30-day period covered by the research.
Xinbi processed $24.2 billion since 2022, TRM Labs says
Xinbi Guarantee emerged on Telegram around 2022 and developed into one of Southeast Asia’s largest illicit crypto marketplaces, according to TRM Labs. The blockchain intelligence company estimates that the platform has processed approximately $24.2 billion in total transaction volume since its creation, including $12.1 billion in observed inflows since May 2025.
The marketplace primarily serves Chinese-speaking users and operates through an escrow model. Guarantee marketplaces connect merchants with buyers while providing transaction infrastructure, with crypto commonly used for settlement.
TRM Labs has linked Xinbi to scam operations, money laundering networks and cybercrime groups operating in Southeast Asia and other regions.
Earlier estimates of Xinbi’s activity were lower as investigators continued identifying transactions connected to the platform. Elliptic research published in May 2025 attributed at least $8.4 billion in USDT transactions to Xinbi since 2022 and found that its user base had increased from 119,000 in August 2024 to 233,000 by May 2025.
The investigation linked merchants on the marketplace to services used by online scammers, including laundering proceeds, fake identification documents and stolen personal information. Elliptic found that approximately $220,000 in USDT connected to the $235 million WazirX hack had passed through Xinbi Guarantee addresses.
By February 2026, TRM Labs estimated that Xinbi had processed $17.9 billion since mid-2025 alone as activity continued despite enforcement measures against Telegram-based marketplaces. Its subsequent profile of Xinbi put total transaction volume since 2022 at $24.2 billion.
Xinbi continued operating after Telegram crackdown
Telegram removed thousands of channels associated with Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee in May 2025 after blockchain researchers documented their activities.
Xinbi resumed operations soon afterward. TRM Labs found signs that the marketplace had returned to Telegram within days, while some vendors associated with Huione Guarantee and Huione Pay were active on Xinbi.
The platform later began moving parts of its operation away from Telegram. TRM Labs said Xinbi migrated toward SafeW, a messaging service, and introduced NewPay, also known as XinbiPay, as a crypto wallet that did not require know-your-customer checks.
Enforcement against competing guarantee marketplaces changed activity across the sector. After Telegram removed Huione Guarantee’s public channels, researchers found users and merchants moving to alternatives. Elliptic identified more than 30 Telegram marketplaces operating after the Huione shutdown, with Tudou Guarantee receiving a large share of the migration.
Xinbi proved particularly resistant to those disruptions. TRM Labs said its daily inflows nearly doubled in the months following Telegram’s May 2025 ban, while transaction volumes associated with Haowang, Huione and Tudou fell sharply.
Previous freezes targeted Huione-linked USDT
Tether had taken similar action against funds connected to Huione before the Xinbi freeze.
In July 2024, the issuer froze more than $28 million held in a Tron wallet that Bitrace linked to Huione Group’s Guarantee business. Bitrace subsequently reported that Huione attempted to work around the restriction by activating another address and transferring 114,800 USDC from the affected wallet.
Huione Guarantee operated as an escrow marketplace connecting vendors with customers through Telegram, with USDT widely used for payments. Researchers linked vendors on the platform to money laundering, stolen data and tools used in online scams.
Huione later developed its own stablecoin, USDH. Elliptic said the token was promoted as an alternative that could not be frozen by an issuer in the same way as USDT.
Telegram’s May 2025 action subsequently removed channels tied to Xinbi and Huione, but TRM Labs later found that both networks had begun rebuilding or moving activity to other channels and services. Xinbi’s transaction volume continued rising after those restrictions, reaching the $24.2 billion total cited by TRM Labs in March 2026.
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