--- title: "Colorado Has a Massive Home-Grown Crypto Crime Problem" description: "A Chinese crypto service called Xinbi Guarantee, an online marketplace for laundering money and sex trafficking, was hiding in Colorado." date: "2025-05-14" modified: "2025-05-14" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/colorado-chinese-crypto-crime-market" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Cryptocurrency" - "Future Society" tags: - "black market" - "crime" - "crypto" --- # Colorado Has a Massive Home-Grown Crypto Crime Problem ![A Chinese crypto service called Xinbi Guarantee, an online marketplace for laundering money and sex trafficking, was hiding in Colorado.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* A Chinese crypto service called Xinbi Guarantee, an online marketplace for laundering money, for-hire harassment, hacking rings, and sex trafficking, was hiding in plain sight in Colorado — until crypto-tracking group Elliptic caught wind of the operation. According to the firm's [latest report](), Xinbi's business was mostly conducted through the freewheeling messaging site Telegram, where criminal operatives based mostly in Southeast Asia sold illicit services and orchestrated movements of stolen cash and data. According to Elliptic, around $8.4 *billion* has been funneled through the crypto operation, primarily by way of Tether stablecoins. Now, though, Xinbi might be in trouble: when *Wired* — [which first reported on Elliptic's findings]() — reached out to Telegram to inquire about the marketplace, the social media site responded by removing several accounts connected to Xinbi and its administrators. Per *Wired*, the bulk of Xinbi Guarantee's transactions are related to "[pig butchering]()" schemes — online scams that involve a fraudster spending weeks or months developing a close (usually romantic) relationship with a target, before tricking them into investing in phony financial opportunities — and other financial scams. The service was also used to hawk Starlink internet devices, which have been used to [power criminal groups]() around the world. Large sums of stolen crypto funds connected to North Korean hacking sprees also appear to have moved through the service. Other business dealings were even darker. Some criminals offered physical harassment campaigns, while others appeared to be using the site to sell people, including girls as young as 14, for sex. So what does all of this have to do with Colorado? According to *Wired*, state records show that Xinbi was registered in an Aurora office park in 2022 by someone named "Mohd Shahrulnizam Bin Abd Manap," but has since become "delinquent." Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard's Asia Center, told *Wired* that incorporating a business in the US offers an air of legitimacy and possible routes to hiring staff and making inroads with US entities. However, given the delinquency, Sims added, that might not have worked out. What happens next remains to be seen. Last year, Elliptic [unmasked]() a similar platform, Huione Guarantee, which researchers found had [moved around $24 billion]() in illicit funds. Telegram shut down related channels — but, per *Wired*, they quickly started cropping back up. The marketplaces are "remarkable for both the scale at which they're operating," Sims told *Wired*, "and also the brazenness." In response to Elliptic and *Wired's* new reporting, Telegram says it's once again shut down accounts related to both black markets. "Criminal activities like scamming or money laundering are forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and are always removed whenever discovered," Telegram told *Wired* in a statement. "Communities previously reported to us by *WIRED* or included in reports published by Elliptic have all been taken down." **More on crypto darknets:** [*Pardoned by Trump, Founder of Silk Road Now Appears to Be Squandering Donations on Stupid Meme Coins*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()