UK becomes first country to sanction crypto marketplace Xinbi over $19.9B fraud empire

The UK has sanctioned crypto marketplace Xinbi and Cambodia’s #8 Park scam compound over a $19.9b fraud and trafficking network, freezing London assets ahead of June’s Illicit Finance Summit.

The UK government on March 26 sanctioned Xinbi, a Chinese-language cryptocurrency marketplace, making it the first country in the world to take such action against the platform. The measures, jointly announced by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Home Office, target what officials described as a key financial pillar of large-scale scam and human trafficking operations across Southeast Asia.

According to Chainalysis, Xinbi processed more than $19.9 billion in transactions between 2021 and 2025. The platform facilitated money laundering, unlicensed over-the-counter crypto trading, and the sale of stolen personal data, while also supplying communications infrastructure — including satellite internet equipment — used to target fraud victims. Crypto.news previously reported on Xinbi’s connection to the broader Telegram-based criminal marketplace ecosystem, where it operated alongside Haowang Guarantee, the largest darknet market ever recorded.

The sanctions extend beyond Xinbi itself to Legend Innovation Co., the operator of Cambodia’s “#8 Park” compound — a scam center believed to hold up to 20,000 trafficked workers — and its director Eang Soklim. The designated individuals are also linked to the Prince Group’s financial network, which the UK and U.S. sanctioned last year in an action that triggered asset freezes and seizures exceeding £1 billion ($1.3 billion).

London properties frozen, infrastructure dismantled

Several London properties will be frozen under the new measures, adding to previously seized UK assets. Those earlier seizures included a £100 million ($133 million) office building, two multi-million-pound mansions, and a helicopter. Officials say the latest action will immediately restrict access to financial channels used by the network.

“Our sanctions today send a clear message: We will not allow British people to become victims of these dreadful scams or tolerate the awful human rights abuses perpetrated in these scam centres,” said Stephen Doughty MP, the UK’s Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, in the official government announcement.

The UK said its goal is to sever Xinbi from the legitimate crypto ecosystem entirely — cutting off its ability to process transactions and eroding the financial backbone that enables scam networks to recruit, sustain, and conceal their operations.

Broader crackdown on crypto-enabled trafficking

The action comes amid rising global alarm about crypto’s role in financing human trafficking and forced labor. A February 2026 Chainalysis report found that crypto flows to suspected trafficking services surged 85% in 2025, with stablecoin-heavy, Telegram-linked networks operating across Southeast Asia at increasing scale. Just six days before the Xinbi sanctions, the FBI and Thai police froze $580 million in crypto linked to organized scam gangs targeting Americans.

The UK’s move is part of what officials describe as a broader strategy targeting not just individual perpetrators but the infrastructure that underpins global fraud. Authorities said the Xinbi sanctions will feed into the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit in June, where they plan to accelerate international coordination to counter the laundering and movement of illicit funds across borders.

As reported by The Block, the sanctions took immediate effect on March 26.