The U.S. Department of Justice has taken down the cloud infrastructure of the "crypto laundering" Huione Group — key servers have been seized.
The United States Department of Justice has dealt a serious blow to the infrastructure of one of the world's largest shadow financial ecosystems. Law enforcement seized a cloud account used by Huione Group entities to host servers that facilitated the transfer and laundering of funds obtained from cryptocurrency scams, hacker attacks, and other forms of cybercrime.
The seized account was a critical node for the operation of a range of illegal platforms and channels. According to the investigation, this infrastructure provided services to organizers of investment frauds, cryptocurrency thieves, and traders of personal data. A particularly significant role was played by associated Telegram channels, which advertised money laundering services and support for fraudulent call centers.
Giant of Criminal Crypto Finance
Huione Group has long been under close scrutiny by US regulators. As early as 2025, FinCEN (a bureau of the US Treasury Department) designated the company as a "primary money laundering concern," effectively cutting it off from the US financial system. According to the agency's estimates, from August 2021 to January 2025, at least $4 billion in illicit funds passed through the group's structures. These funds originated from cryptocurrency frauds, cyberattacks by North Korean hackers, and other criminal schemes.
The Huione Group ecosystem included projects such as the payment service Huione Pay, the cryptocurrency platform Huione Crypto, and the marketplace Haowang Guarantee (formerly Huione Guarantee). Analysts have called the latter the largest illegal online platform for servicing crypto scammers.
Systemic Fight Against the Infrastructure of Evil
The seizure of server infrastructure is not a one-off action but part of a large-scale US campaign aimed at disrupting the financial networks serving transnational fraud groups in Southeast Asia. The Justice Department emphasized that the operation's goal is not merely to prosecute individuals but to completely dismantle the infrastructure that sustains the entire crypto scam ecosystem.
Recall that according to a Chainalysis report, in 2025, the volume of illicit crypto assets passing through illegal wallets exceeded $154 billion — a 162% increase compared to 2024. This confirms the enormous scale of the problem, and the Justice Department's actions are only the first step in a long and complex fight against the criminal use of cryptocurrencies.
My comment: The seizure of Huione Group's cloud infrastructure is not just a tactical success but a demonstration of a new approach: instead of pursuing individual fraudsters, regulators have begun to systematically dismantle the very environment in which they operate. This could set a precedent for similar operations against other major "crypto laundromats" in Asia. However, it is worth noting that $4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg, and as long as such networks have access to decentralized tools, completely eradicating the problem is unlikely.