Huione Group, the company behind Telegram-based illicit marketplace Huione Guarantee, has launched its stablecoin. According to blockchain security company Elliptic, it launched the USDH stablecoin in September. Huione Group introduced the stablecoin just a few months after Elliptic published its report that its subsidiary, Huione Guarantee, is a hub for fraudsters and criminal gangs in Southeast Asia. Elliptic claimed that the marketplace had seen over $11 billion in trading volume for illicit activities at the time. That number has now increased to over $24 billion. According to the blocksec company, Huione Group markets its dollar-pegged stablecoin as censorship-resistant and not subject to seizure. This makes it essentially different from popular stablecoins, including Tether USDT and Circle USDC, and more preferable for illicit activity. The promotion material reads: “USDH is not restricted by traditional regulatory agencies, and users’ assets will not be frozen at will. Users can manage and use assets more freely and enjoy higher financial autonomy.” The stablecoin has already been issued on the Ethereum, Tron, and BSC blockchains. It is also available on Huione’s recently launched network, the Huione Chain (Xone Chain), and is accessible via Huione Pay. Huione rebrands to hide affiliations with Huione Group Meanwhile, Huione Guarantee has rebranded and changed its name to Haowang Guarantee. The change appears to react to Elliptic’s disclosure about its use for all kinds of illicit activity, including money laundering services, trading stolen data, and scam technologies. As part of the rebrand, Huione Group’s payments business, Huione Pay, also references the marketplace on its website. The page that describes Huione Guarantee as a subsidiary of the Group is no longer accessible even though the marketplace still describes Huione Group as its shareholder and strategic partner. Despite attempts to hide affiliations, the marketplace has been promoting the USDH stablecoin to its users, noting that their transactions will never be frozen. Most of the trade on the platform happens in USDT, which exposes it to the risk of fund seizure. For instance, Tether froze USDT in one of Huione Pay’s wallets after funds linked to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus were transferred. Huione Guarantee is the biggest darknet platform ever (Source: Elliptic) Interestingly, activity on the Huione marketplace has also grown significantly over the past few months. As Elliptic noted, monthly inflows to wallets used by the platform have increased by 51% since July 2024, and the number of users has reached 900,000. This makes it the biggest-ever illicit marketplace. The marketplace has also seen almost $6 billion in crypto for its Telegram bot, which is used for online betting. Blockchain analysts believe that most of these bets are likely for money laundering purposes and not real online gambling. Huione Group expands products to reduce dependencies Meanwhile, the stablecoin is only one of the multiple products the Huione group has launched over the last few months. The Cambodian company also launched its blockchain network, a decentralized crypto exchange, and a wallet, ensuring a future where all transactions happen within its ecosystem. Additionally, it also unveiled a spot exchange, Huione Crypto. The crypto exchange is licensed to operate in Poland, which means it can offer its services to residents of the European Union. It also features support for the Chinese language, hinting at possible usage in Southeast Asia as well. Beyond the series of crypto products, Huione has also created a messaging app called ChatMe. The app, which has several of Telegram’s features including bots and group chats, appears to be an attempt by the company to reduce reliance on third-party social media platforms. Telegram has come under scrutiny for not cracking down on illicit activity, A Step-By-Step System To Launching Your Web3 Career and Landing High-Paying Crypto Jobs in 90 Days.
