A Telegram-based assure market identified for promoting a broad vary of illicit companies seems to be winding down its operations, in response to new findings from Elliptic.
The blockchain intelligence firm mentioned Tudou Assure has successfully ceased transactions by means of its public Telegram teams following a interval of great development. {The marketplace} is estimated to have processed over $12 billion in transactions, making it the third-largest illicit market of all time.
“Different components of Tudou Assure, corresponding to its playing operations, proceed to perform, so it stays to be seen whether or not this represents the primary phases of a full shutdown or a pivot away from fraud-related exercise,” the corporate mentioned.
Tudou Assure is simply one of many many Telegram-based marketplaces serving cyber fraudsters, the others being HuiOne Assure and Xinbi Assure, which collectively engaged in over $35 billion in USDT transactions. 1000’s of channels related to each companies had been shuttered by Telegram final yr.
{The marketplace} has since emerged as a number one platform, prompting retailers who beforehand offered by means of HuiOne Assure emigrate to Tudou Assure, providing stolen private information, cash laundering companies, rip-off infrastructure like fraudulent funding platforms and phishing web sites, and software program packages to facilitate face swapping, voice cloning, and deepfake-powered impersonation throughout video calls with victims.
Analysis from Chainalysis revealed in November 2025 has recognized that rip-off know-how distributors collectively acquired no less than $375.9 million in cryptocurrency in 2024, with synthetic intelligence (AI) service distributors witnessing a 1,900% compound annual development charge from 2021 by means of 2024, enabling scammers to forge real looking identities, generate convincing content material, and scale their operations.
The migration was no coincidence as HuiOne acquired a 30% monetary stake in Tudou Assure in December 2024, setting the latter as a key fallback for Huione-affiliated distributors.
Elliptic’s Founder and Chief Scientist, Tom Robinson, advised The Hacker Information that Xinbi Assure has recovered and grown following Telegram’s intervention, and that there are an analogous variety of markets nonetheless in operation. “After shutting down HuiOne Assure, Telegram is not taking any motion towards these rip-off marketplaces. There is not any want for them to maneuver to different messaging platforms,” Robinson added.
The obvious shutdown of Tudou Assure additionally seems to be associated to the current regulation enforcement actions towards the Cambodian conglomerate Prince Group and its CEO, Chen Zhi, who was arrested and extradited to China earlier this month.
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| Chatter referencing Tudou Assure in reference to the Chen Zhi scandal (Supply: Elliptic) |
The billionaire businessman stands accused of masterminding an unlimited funding rip-off that concerned luring trafficked employees to pressured labour camps in Southeast Asia to defraud victims globally, a scheme often known as romance baiting or pig butchering. Prince Group has denied wrongdoing.
Elliptic mentioned its real-time monitoring of Tudou’s central administrative wallets exhibits a sudden drop in exercise within the following days, suggesting a hyperlink to the arrest.
“The closure of Tudou is a big blow to the Southeast Asian rip-off economic system, however historical past suggests the vacuum is not going to stay unfilled for lengthy,” the corporate mentioned, including it expects the malicious exercise to disperse throughout different assure marketplaces that will are available to swoop displaced retailers and prospects.
In the meantime, governments and regulation enforcement authorities aren’t sitting idle. In November 2025, the U.S. authorities introduced the creation of the Rip-off Middle Strike Drive to dismantle Southeast Asian transnational legal networks behind cryptocurrency-related fraud and pig butchering scams.
Thus far, the staff has seized and forfeited $401 million in cryptocurrency from these schemes. It is also working with U.S. firms to grab and disable U.S.-based amenities and infrastructure that energy the scams, in addition to forestall them from being weaponized to focus on Americans.
