The “largest online illicit market” is still growing at an alarming rate, the report says

Adding an in-house communication service known as “ChatMe”, a cryptocurrency exchange (Huione Crypto), and stablecoin backed by the US dollar (“USDH”) suggests that Huione Guarantee is looking to become a truly full service, platform self sufficient . The website for USDH, Elliptic researchers say, describes it as “not restricted” by regulators around the world and says it “avoids the common freeze and transfer restrictions” that may apply to other cryptocurrencies. currency

In its work last year, Elliptic found that in the first three years of its operation, the sellers of Garanzia Huione move about $ 11 billion on the platform. Less than a year later, researchers now estimate the cumulative total to be $24 billion. The various expansions of the platform all contribute to the increase, but ultimately its escrow and transfer services are the core service.

“With Huione Guarantee, the main thing that is sold is actually the laundering of the proceeds of online scams,” says Robinson. “Most of the funds that pass through the market are related to sellers who openly offer money laundering services that talk about the types of fraud proceeds that they are willing to accept.”

Meanwhile, as a business boom, researchers say that the owner of the platform, Huione Group, has worked to minimize its association with the market and the connection between Huione Guarantee and other related services, such as Huione Pay. The market was also changed to “Haowang Guarantee”, although Huione Group confirmed to the researchers that Huione Guarantee is still a “strategic partner and shareholder”.

“The Huion Guarantee Group on Telegram continues to be widely used, with more than 139,000 users,” says Jason Tower, the country director for Myanmar at the US Institute of Peace. “Telegram groups are used to move large sums of cryptocurrency with a significant discount. In comparison, competing platforms have lost a significant number of users. This is probably the result of repression by the Chinese government.”

Robinson says an initial analysis by Elliptic found about $6 billion going through a Telegram bot that is allegedly “used primarily for online gambling at Huione Guarantee.” The researchers’ analysis suggests that this may also be allegedly linked to money laundering. Users deposit crypto into a wallet and then can move their balance into individual minigames that exist in their Telegram groups. The “games” are extremely rudimentary, however, and do not seem to involve any skill. Players also tend to bet consistently over very long periods of time, bet similar amounts, and leave precise intervals between their bets. All of this “together suggests automated gambling for money-making purposes rather than entertainment,” says Robinson.

Despite Huione Guarantee’s apparent too-big-to-fail strategy, Elliptical researchers say the platform is far from totally self-sufficient. So far, Huione’s stablecoin and cryptocurrency exchange have failed to register significant transaction volumes, Robinson says, despite some promotion in its existing communication channels. As the market works to push the transition, its permanent dependence on third parties could also be a weakness, at least for now.

“Huione Guarantee is still dependent on some centralized infrastructure, Tether and Telegram,” says Robinson. “I think there is an opportunity now to suppress through those service providers. I think we wait too long, then there is a chance that they will move to their own infrastructure and this becomes more challenging.