Over $24 billion worth of cryptocurrency has been amassed by Huione Group's Telegram-based online marketplace Huione Guarantee and its vendors since its emergence in the third quarter of 2021, surpassing the dismantled Hydra Market as the biggest illicit marketplace online, according to The Hacker News.
Huione Guarantee — which was previously noted to be an online fraud, money laundering, and romance baiting scam hub — experienced a 51% growth in monthly inflows since July and obtained more than $4 billion during the fourth quarter alone, compared with the $5.2 billion obtained by Hydra Market over its six years of operations, a report from Elliptic revealed. Aside from involving Huione Pay in romance-baiting scam proceeds laundering activities, Huione Group has also unveiled the new USDH stablecoin and a dedicated decentralized exchange for the stablecoin, as well as the new ChatMe messaging app. "This appears to be an attempt to reduce the risk of being deplatformed by the likes of Tether or Telegram," said Elliptic co-founder and chief scientist Tom Robinson.