The U.S. Department of Justice has restrained more than $52 million in cryptocurrency as authorities moved against wallets and online channels linked to the Xinbi Guarantee scam network.
The coordinated operation restrained more than $52 million in crypto in a single day. Tether said two wallets linked to Xinbi had received about $12 million in payments. U.S. authorities also sought restraint orders covering 47 additional wallets connected to suspected money laundering.
Xinbi operated more like a service marketplace than one individual scam website. According to U.S. authorities and blockchain researchers, the platform connected scam groups with money launderers, fake investment operators, and recruiters involved in human trafficking.
The DOJ action focused on the financial infrastructure supporting the network. Vendors allegedly used Xinbi to advertise services, receive payments, and move money from online scams through cryptocurrency wallets.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia confirmed that $52 million was restrained during the operation. The office said the action brought the Scam Center Strike Force’s total enforcement amount to $938 million.
Authorities have not said whether all of the restrained wallets contained USDT or identified every digital asset involved. The legal actions also differed: two wallets were seized, while the government sought restraints against 47 others.
Xinbi had already attracted major attention from blockchain researchers. Elliptic estimated that the marketplace processed at least $8.4 billion in transactions from 2022 through May 2025. By April 2026, Elliptic estimated its total transaction volume had reached $21 billion.
Tether played an important role in the latest action because it can freeze USDT held at specific wallet addresses after receiving valid requests from law enforcement.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said criminal groups should not assume that cryptocurrency puts their money beyond investigators’ reach. Blockchain transactions can be tracked, and stablecoin issuers can take action when authorities identify wallets connected to illegal activity.
Tether said it has worked with more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 67 countries. The company said this cooperation has helped freeze more than $5 billion in assets linked to suspected illegal activity.
This is not the first U.S. case where Tether has helped investigators. In June 2025, the DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint involving about $225.3 million in cryptocurrency connected to investment fraud affecting more than 400 suspected victims.
The FBI and U.S. Secret Service traced several groups of Tether tokens through a laundering network after Tether and crypto exchange OKX flagged suspicious accounts. Authorities alleged that the money came from investment scams in which criminals first built trust with victims before directing them to fake investment platforms.
Crypto investment fraud has become a major problem in the United States. FBI figures cited in the earlier DOJ case showed reported losses reached $5.8 billion in 2024.
Xinbi also returned after an earlier crackdown. In May 2025, Telegram blocked channels connected to Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee after researchers linked the marketplaces to crypto scams and money laundering.
Elliptic data cited by Reuters showed that the two Chinese-language markets had processed more than $35 billion combined since 2021. Telegram said scams and money laundering violated its rules.
Xinbi later returned through new channels, while other guarantee marketplaces picked up some of the business. This showed that removing online accounts did not necessarily eliminate the larger payment networks supporting these operations.
The guarantee-market model offered escrow and deposit services that were supposed to protect buyers and sellers. Researchers said criminal groups used the same system to connect scam operators with sellers of stolen data, money-laundering services, telecommunications tools, and equipment linked to forced-labor compounds.
Some scam centers in Southeast Asia have also relied on trafficked workers. People were sometimes recruited with fake job offers and then forced to contact potential victims. U.S. authorities have increasingly treated financial scams and human trafficking as connected parts of the same criminal networks.
The Xinbi operation is part of a broader U.S. crackdown on crypto scam networks targeting Americans. The DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, and Treasury have used wallet seizures, civil forfeiture cases, website takedowns, and sanctions to target the money and infrastructure behind these operations.
In another major case, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network took action against Cambodia-based Huione Group in May 2025. FinCEN identified the company as a major money-laundering concern and said Huione had processed at least $4 billion in illicit proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025.
The agency said that amount included money connected to North Korean cyber theft, crypto investment fraud, and other cyber scams. FinCEN also pointed to weak anti-money-laundering and customer-verification controls across Huione’s business network.
The latest Xinbi action shows that U.S. authorities are increasingly targeting not only individual scammers but also the crypto wallets, payment systems, and marketplaces that help these networks move and hide their money.
