The Collapse of the Huiwang Gray-Black Crypto Empire

On December 1, 2025, Huione Pay announced the suspension of its operations.

This was not the simple collapse of an ordinary payment company, but the complete downfall of a vast gray and black financial network spanning payments, escrow black markets, and crypto stablecoins, under multi-national sanctions and regulatory crackdowns.

At the true center of this network is the Huione Group.

The Countdown for Huione

Once dubbed the “Alipay of Cambodia,” Huione was the largest third-party financial system in Southeast Asia’s gray market circle, and a secretive USDT payment overlord. Its downfall was not sudden, but rather a countdown with the ending long written.

As early as March this year, Huione had its license revoked by local financial authorities, losing its legal status. In May, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), under Section 311 of the Patriot Act, issued a final rule designating Huione Group as a “primary money laundering concern,” completely severing its connection to the U.S. financial system. In October, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) jointly launched the largest-ever coordinated sanctions, once again identifying Huione as a “primary money laundering institution,” accusing it of being involved in at least $4 billion in illicit fund flows.

At this point, Huione’s fate was sealed.

The Secret Network of Huione Group

The predecessor of Huione Group was Huione Currency Exchange (Cambodia) Co., Ltd., founded in 2014. After a decade of expansion, it gradually transformed into a large financial conglomerate. Multiple investigations indicate that its fund flows overlapped with the business network of Cambodia’s “Prince Group” led by Chen Zhi, with gray backgrounds embedded from the very beginning.

By around 2024, Huione Group’s subsidiaries—Huione Pay, Huione Guarantee, and Huione Crypto—had formed a complete money laundering industry chain, each playing its role and creating a closed loop.

Huione Pay: The Front-End Channel for Gray and Black Funds

As Huione Group’s core front-end tool, Huione Pay handled cross-border payments, stablecoin deposits and withdrawals, OTC matching, merchant acquiring, and underground currency exchange. On the surface, it was Cambodia’s “Alipay,” but behind the scenes, it was deeply embedded in Southeast Asia’s gray and black industry chain.

According to blockchain security firm SlowMist, from January 1, 2024, to June 23, 2025, Huione Pay handled over $50 billion in USDT deposits and withdrawals on the TRON chain. Active deposit addresses surged from less than 30,000 to over 80,000, with peak daily withdrawals close to 150,000 transactions. In July 2024, Tether froze addresses linked to the platform, totaling 29.62 million USDT. Although the platform later claimed to have “strengthened KYC,” illegal transactions continued to occur frequently.

Huione Crypto: An Amplifier of Regulatory Loopholes

Huione’s crypto business allowed users to deposit and withdraw directly with USDT and other virtual currencies, with rapid settlements, making it a favored channel for gray industries.

Notably, in September 2024, Huione launched its own stablecoin, USDH, claiming it was “unfreezable” and not subject to traditional regulatory restrictions, pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, and supported ETH, TRON, BSC, and its proprietary Huione Chain. The goal was to bypass asset freezing mechanisms like those of USDT. This meant a “risk-free channel” custom-made for illicit funds was officially opened. According to Elliptic data, Huione Crypto processed suspicious transactions totaling several billion dollars.

Huione Guarantee: The Credit Engine of the Telegram Black Market

If payments and crypto were the pipelines, then Huione Guarantee was the “credit core” of gray and black transactions.

Huione Guarantee long operated via Telegram, providing escrow services for black market deals, covering everything from telecom fraud services to money laundering, stolen cards, data trading, and other illicit transactions. The platform not only matched transactions but also provided “fund custody” and “dispute arbitration,” ensuring illegal trades could be completed smoothly.

Public investigations show that since 2021, black market transactions brokered by Huione Guarantee have exceeded $27 billion, with main clients being telecom fraud and cybercrime rings. In May 2025, following an Elliptic report, Telegram banned thousands of its accounts, leading to the platform’s shutdown. Nevertheless, the escrow market was quickly taken over by new players such as “Tudou Guarantee,” and gray transactions did not disappear.

Shocking Numbers

According to FinCEN’s investigation, since 2021, Huione Group processed over $50 billion in transactions, with at least $4 billion linked to illegal activities: $37 million from crypto stolen by North Korean hackers (such as the Lazarus Group), $36 million from “pig-butchering” investment scams, and $300 million from other online frauds.

Elliptic’s estimates are even more staggering, suggesting that related illicit crypto transactions could total as much as $98 billion.

The collapse of Huione Pay is not just the bankruptcy of a “payment company,” but more like a wake-up call for the Web3 industry. Technology itself is neutral; the key lies in filling regulatory gaps and building a more compliant, secure, and transparent financial system.

Only by strengthening regulation and guiding healthy technological development can we prevent large-scale financial disasters like “Huione Pay.”