Chinese Crypto Scammers Build $27B Darknet Market Via Telegram

Telegram's encrypted channels have become the new frontier for a sprawling, multi-billion-dollar shadow economy.

The Anatomy of a Darknet Empire

Forget the Silk Road's clunky web interfaces. The latest generation of illicit marketplaces operates in plain sight—or at least, within the encrypted walls of popular messaging apps. Operators leverage the platform's built-in privacy features and massive user base to recruit, coordinate, and transact, creating a decentralized bazaar that's notoriously difficult to trace and dismantle.

This isn't small-time fraud. The scale points to sophisticated, organized networks that understand both blockchain technology and global finance loopholes. They use cryptocurrency's inherent pseudonymity not as a feature, but as the core engine for moving value outside regulated channels.

A Provocative Reality for Finance

While traditional finance scrambles to implement know-your-customer rules that add friction and cost, these networks demonstrate a brutal market truth: where there's overwhelming demand for frictionless, private transactions, a supply will emerge to meet it—regardless of legality. It's the ultimate, cynical test of decentralized finance's promises, playing out in the worst possible way. The takeaway for regulators isn't just a crime story; it's a multi-billion-dollar lesson in competitive pressure.

A shift from traditional darknet sites

Data from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic shows that the traditional Darknet is being replaced by “Guarantee” (escrow) markets. Groups like Tudou Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee now serve as the primary financial infrastructure for global cybercrime.

Unlike the centralized servers of the past, these Telegram-based markets are highly resilient. When a channel is occasionally banned, administrators quickly migrate their user base to prearranged backup accounts, ensuring near-constant uptime. This model has allowed the top two markets to facilitate nearly $2 billion in monthly transactions.

Investigations show that these groups have shifted away from conventional darknet websites, which have been common targets for worldwide police crackdown operations. Instead, they now operate on Telegram, meaning that they have formed a rather decentralized system.

Through the use of custom-made robots, these scammers can create automated processes for the sales of not only credit card details and compromised accounts but also complex spyware. These are not just simple scams; they are rather well-organized criminal operations that are structured like companies.

They offer customer support, escrow services to help create trust among the criminals, and marketing activities to recruit new members, or “affiliates,” into the organization.

Taking place against this background are the recent developments in Chinese-led cybercrime operations. In the past, dark web markets such as Silk Road or AlphaBay used the Tor network, which was quite difficult to access without prior knowledge. In recent years, there has been a marked shift toward using regular encrypted communication applications.

Chinese organized crime syndicates, typically associated with “pig butchering” scams and Southeast Asia’s human trafficking mafias, have been modifying their platforms to leverage the anonymity afforded by cryptocurrency transactions. 

Global security and entry-level of cybercrime

This trend has serious implications for the future of global security and financial systems. With such markets being incorporated into more and more social platforms, the entry level for cybercrime could very well see a significant increase in identity theft and financial fraud crimes around the globe.

The authorities already have their work cut out for them, what with the privacy-oriented approach taken by Telegram and the fact that blockchain is a decentralized system, making it extremely difficult to track transactions. The likelihood of this system being used for more serious uses other than financial crimes isn’t that far-fetched.

Paradoxically, the move of Chinese crypto scammers to Telegram groups symbolizes an escalation in the capacity of darknet markets. This is because scammers have utilized modern technology and pre-existing networks to develop an “untouchable” digital world that operates in the open. 

It WOULD appear that only through an unprecedented level of global cooperation would it be possible to develop a different way of keeping tabs on digital platforms and financial systems. Otherwise, it seems likely that these markets will grow in their rapid expansion and continue to pose a threat to an orderly global digital economy.

Also Read: Copy-Paste Error Costs Crypto User $50 Million in Wallet Scam