The U.S. Department of Justice has dealt a devastating blow to the infrastructure of the cryptocurrency laundering group Huione Group.
The U.S. Department of Justice has conducted a large-scale operation to seize a cloud account used by Huione Group entities to host servers serving illegal financial operations. This infrastructure was a key element in the money laundering chain for proceeds from crypto scams and other types of cybercrime.
The seized account supported the operation of a range of platforms and channels through which transactions related to investment fraud, cryptocurrency theft, and the trade of personal data were processed. In particular, related Telegram channels actively advertised money laundering services, the sale of stolen information, and support for fraudulent call centers.
One of the largest centers of crypto crime
Huione Group has long been under close scrutiny by U.S. regulators. As early as 2025, FinCEN (a unit of the U.S. Treasury Department) 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, from August 2021 to January 2025, at least $4 billion in illicit funds passed through the group's structures, including money from cryptocurrency fraud, cyberattacks by North Korean hackers, and other criminal schemes.
This criminal ecosystem included the payment service Huione Pay, the cryptocurrency platform Huione Crypto, and the marketplace Haowang Guarantee (formerly Huione Guarantee). Analysts described the latter as the largest illegal online platform for servicing crypto scammers.
Pressure on fraudsters' infrastructure intensifies
The seizure of server infrastructure is the latest phase of the U.S. campaign against financial services supporting transnational fraud networks in Southeast Asia. The Justice Department emphasized that the goal of the operation is not only to pursue individual criminals but also to completely dismantle the infrastructure that supports the entire crypto scam ecosystem.
It is worth noting that, according to Chainalysis' 2025 report, the volume of illegal crypto assets reached a record $154 billion, an increase of 162% compared to 2024. This indicates that, despite individual law enforcement successes, the scale of the problem remains enormous. The dismantling of Huione Group's infrastructure is an important step, but it is only part of a long and complex fight against crypto crime, which requires global coordination and continuous improvement of tracking methods.