TL;DR:
- Despite Huione’s reported “shutdown” and the disappearance of its website and Telegram channels, transaction data shows no meaningful decline. In fact, our data shows continued, or even increased, activity.
- Huione’s persistence demonstrates the service’s effectiveness as an embedded network of laundering pipelines, only partially dependent on visible infrastructure.
- Recent developments, including the impending FinCEN final rule designation, offer a timely opportunity to reassess Huione’s ongoing involvement in organized crime and cross-border capital flows.
- Building on our initial piece about Huione and the mechanics of guarantee services, this follow-up examines Huione’s continued role as an industrial-scale money laundering hub.
Following the takedown of its website, Telegram channels, and an officially announced closure, activity linked to Huione has not declined — in fact, it has increased. Our data shows that the platform continues to process billions of dollars, pointing to a highly resilient system that operates largely independent of its public-facing infrastructure.
Huione (also branded as Haowang) announces that it’s closing shop. But has it?
On May 1, 2025, FinCEN moved to designate Cambodia-based Huione as a primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. If finalized, the move would cut Huione off from the U.S. financial system. Yet transaction volumes remain largely unaffected.
Huione’s continued operations reflect broader trends in Chinese-language laundering networks, particularly those built around “guarantee services.” Huione’s ability to function at scale with a complex infrastructure suggests a shift toward more decentralized, embedded financial systems designed to evade conventional disruption. Addressing these networks may require updated enforcement strategies that go beyond surface takedowns and focus on the complex underlying architecture that supports them.
Impact of FinCEN designation: Huione continues to launder funds at scale
This represents FinCEN’s second use of Sections 311 and 9714 against crypto-related illicit finance, following actions against the Bitzlato exchange. The approach offers regulatory advantages: Section 311 measures can isolate bad actors without immediate judicial scrutiny, as they’re framed as protective rules rather than asset freezes.
While the rule is pending finalization, U.S. banks typically react immediately to Section 311 proposals, often severing ties upon announcement to avoid regulatory risk. This “de-risking” effect means Huione likely lost U.S. dollar access from the day of the notice — yet transactional data suggests minimal operational impact.
The data shows that not only did transaction volume not drop following the FinCEN announcement, it actually increased. While it is too early to determine the long-term effects, this early trend demonstrates the platform’s – and the guarantee ecosystem’s – operational resilience are a reflection of their complex laundering networks, which generally avoid utilizing mainstream exchanges subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
In addition to avoiding mainstream exchanges and likely anticipating regulatory measures, Huione’s cryptocurrency exchange platform has returned to the scene. The platform retained its old logo, but resurfaced under an inconspicuous new domain Huione.me. On this front, Huione appears undefeated by recent disruption against its infrastructure, Huione[.]me’s social media accounts remain active across different platforms, including on its Telegram channels where engagements between the business and its users remain lively.
On the crypto platform, the Huione-linked token XOC and the Huione-promoted stablecoin USDH are also listed for trading, and overall, pointing towards Huione’s resilience and hinting at the fact that it truly takes a village when it comes to complete disruption.
Typologies of laundering service offerings on guarantee platforms
Laundering operations facilitated through guarantee services span a wide range of services. Internally categorized as “money movement services,” these fall into several core types:
- Card transfers: Vendors offer fund transfers to prepaid cards, often with restrictions based on user type, suggesting a form of criminal vetting and awareness of potential law enforcement scrutiny.
- Fiat-to-stablecoin conversions: Direct cash-for-crypto trades, often in person or through unregistered intermediaries.
- Multi-way laundering: Complex offerings involving multiple sources and conversion pathways.
- Physical exchanges: Some services even organize motorcades for in-person cash pickups, highlighting the real-world logistics behind on-chain laundering.
Machine translated caption: Always insist on delivering cash in person, never intermediary, adding a little instability to customers, real pure white funds, clean funds first, transaction safety first, customer service first, nationwide delivery starting from 50,000! Steady, steady, steady
These operations display characteristics suggesting deep integration with other crime networks, often advertising through coded language and explicit disclaimers about security protocols. The continued sophistication and volume of these services contradicts any meaningful operational disruption from the publicized shutdown.
Broader guarantee ecosystem response
Beyond Huione, other guarantee services in the same ecosystem show mixed volume trends. Some have seen growth post-Huione shutdown, but none come close to matching Huione’s scale. This supports the theory that rather than users migrating to other services, new money may be entering the ecosystem altogether and they are simply continuing to use their established laundering networks to facilitate their activity, rather than lean into other guarantee platforms.
While one Telegram-based service, Tudou Danbao — which Huione reportedly acquired a 30% stake in — experienced nearly 3,000% month-over-month growth, examination of dollar volumes rather than percentage changes reveals these remain insignificant compared to Huione’s continued operations. This disparity suggests Huione’s infrastructure operates at a fundamentally different scale than visible competitors.
This indicates that rather than user migration creating growth elsewhere, Huione’s core processing capabilities have remained largely intact despite surface-level disruptions.
Huione’s continued operation, even after its public-facing infrastructure was taken down, reveals the limits of current approaches to combating deeply embedded criminal financial networks with multiple redundancies.
Defeating enforcement silos: What’s next?
The question now isn’t whether Huione is still operational — it clearly is — but rather, what kinds of interventions can meaningfully disrupt it? For now, the data shows one unavoidable truth: Huione’s “shutdown” did not slow it down.
This persistence reflects a broader challenge posed by extensive on-chain laundering networks operated by organized criminal groups sophisticated enough to exploit detection blind spots and operate at scale. It calls for an ecosystem-wide response: meaning sustained, multi-vector enforcement strategies. Critically, these efforts must go beyond national boundaries. Cross-border partnerships and real-time information sharing — particularly between financial intelligence units, law enforcement, and regulatory bodies — are essential to mapping transaction flows, tracking intermediaries, and closing enforcement gaps exploited by transnational networks.
Equally important is the role of blockchain intelligence. As laundering networks increasingly leverage crypto rails, advanced blockchain analytics provide vital visibility into illicit transaction patterns, uncovering infrastructure that may remain hidden through conventional methods. Integrating Chainalysis with international cooperation can enhance the precision, reach, and impact of disruption efforts.
Ultimately, confronting modern on-chain laundering ecosystems like Huione will require more than tougher rules — but informed unified action. No single agency can solve this alone. But with collective resolve and connected enforcement, tangible impact can be made.
This material is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. Recipients should consult their own advisors before making these types of decisions. Chainalysis has no responsibility or liability for any decision made or any other acts or omissions in connection with Recipient’s use of this material.
Chainalysis does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, suitability or validity of the information in this report and will not be responsible for any claim attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies of any part of such material.
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