The U.S. Department of Justice has dismantled the cloud infrastructure of the cryptocurrency laundering operation Huione Group.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of a key cloud account that supported the server infrastructure for services linked to laundering funds obtained from cryptocurrency scams and other types of cybercrime. This account belonged to the structures of the notorious Huione Group.
According to the investigation, the seized account served as the foundation for the operation of a number of platforms and channels designed for conducting illegal financial transactions. In particular, the Huione Group ecosystem provided services to organizers of investment frauds, cryptocurrency thieves, traders of personal data, and other representatives of the criminal underworld. Related Telegram channels actively advertised services for money laundering, selling stolen information, and supporting fraudulent call centers.
One of the largest centers of crypto crime
Huione Group has long been under close scrutiny by U.S. regulators. In 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department's FinCEN officially designated the company as a "primary money laundering concern," effectively cutting it off from the U.S. financial system. According to the agency's estimates, between August 2021 and January 2025, at least $4 billion in illegal funds passed through the group's structures. This amount includes money from cryptocurrency scams, cyberattacks by North Korean hackers, and other criminal schemes.
The Huione Group ecosystem included the payment service Huione Pay, the cryptocurrency platform Huione Crypto, and the marketplace Haowang Guarantee (formerly known as Huione Guarantee). Analysts called the latter the largest illegal online platform for servicing crypto scammers.
Pressure on fraudsters' infrastructure intensifies
The seizure of the server infrastructure is the latest step in a large-scale U.S. campaign targeting financial services that support transnational fraud networks in Southeast Asia. The Department of Justice emphasized that the goal of this operation is not just to prosecute individual criminals, but to completely destroy the infrastructure that supports the entire crypto scam ecosystem.
It is worth noting that, according to a Chainalysis report, over $154 billion was received by illegal cryptocurrency wallets in 2025 — a 162% increase compared to 2024. This clearly demonstrates how acute the problem of combating cryptocurrency crime has become.
My analysis: This move by the U.S. Department of Justice is not just a targeted strike, but a strategic operation to dismantle an entire ecosystem. The seizure of Huione Group's cloud infrastructure deals a serious blow not only to the group itself but also to all the fraud networks connected to it. However, as the growth in the volume of illegal crypto assets shows, the problem runs much deeper, and such measures need to become systematic to truly turn the tide.