WASHINGTON, September 16 — The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language online marketplace, as a significant transnational criminal organisation, in an action that names two technology companies accused of supporting its operations and freezes dozens of cryptocurrency addresses on the TRON blockchain. The designation, announced on 9 September 2026, targets what Treasury describes as the financial and logistical backbone of Southeast Asia’s cyber-scam economy.
Xinbi operated as an escrow-backed marketplace, connecting criminal groups with vendors selling the services and equipment needed to run scam centres. Its listings have included stolen personal data, fake identity documents, AI-generated deepfake tools, satellite internet equipment and over-the-counter cryptocurrency services.
The escrow model at the centre of the case
At its heart, the case turns on a single function. Xinbi was not simply another crypto exchange. Its escrow service provided a layer of trust between criminal buyers and sellers, allowing transactions to proceed with limited due diligence — a role that blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs describes as increasingly important settlement infrastructure for cross-border illicit finance.
Two technology companies were named alongside the marketplace. Cambodia-based Anwen Technology developed the XinbiPay/NewPay crypto wallet, while Singapore-based SafeW Technology developed the SafeW encrypted messaging application.
OFAC also designated 52 cryptocurrency addresses on the TRON blockchain. The scale is disputed. TRM Labs estimates Xinbi has processed more than $36bn in digital assets and fiat currency since around 2022, including $17bn in inflows.
Treasury’s own announcement puts the volume at more than $24bn — a gap that underlines how difficult it is to measure activity across a sprawling illicit financial network. “OFAC sanctioned Xinbi for good reason,” said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs.
“When Huione went down, Xinbi became the go-to escrow and cash-out layer for Southeast Asia’s scam compounds and did it at industrial scale, moving more than USD 36 billion.”
How enforcement reshaped the market
The action also illustrates how quickly criminal networks adapt. Treasury said cybercriminals shifted activity towards Xinbi following the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s action against Huione Group, which disrupted one of the region’s major money-laundering networks. Xinbi expanded as authorities moved against rival platforms.
For regulators across the Asia-Pacific, the designation highlights the growing importance of crypto marketplaces in industrial-scale fraud — and the difficulty of disrupting the financial plumbing that keeps the scam economy running. What to watch next is whether the named technology companies and the designated wallet addresses are enough to force the network to rebuild again elsewhere, or whether the escrow layer itself proves harder to replace.
