Home / Crime and Justice / Telegram Becomes Crime Hub for $2B Monthly Scams
Telegram Becomes Crime Hub for $2B Monthly Scams
23 Dec, 2025
Summary
- Chinese-language crypto scam markets on Telegram facilitate $2 billion monthly.
- Pig butchering scams now account for $10 billion annually from US victims.
- One Telegram market, Huione Guarantee, facilitated $27 billion from 2021-2025.
Messaging platforms like Telegram have become the primary hubs for massive cryptocurrency-fueled black markets, eclipsing the dark web's prominence. Chinese-language markets on Telegram now facilitate nearly $2 billion in monthly illicit transactions, including sales of stolen data and scam tools.
The "pig butchering" romance and investment scams, largely operated from Southeast Asia, have emerged as the world's most lucrative cybercrime, earning an estimated $10 billion annually from U.S. victims alone. Markets like Tudou Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee thrive by providing money-laundering services to these operations.
Historically, the dark web market AlphaBay facilitated over $1 billion, while Russia's Hydra market handled $5 billion. In stark contrast, Huione Guarantee, operating openly on Telegram, processed an astonishing $27 billion between 2021 and 2025, earning it the title of the largest illicit online marketplace ever recorded.
