'Largest online black market' shuts down

Huione Pay, the world's largest money laundering network in Cambodia, has announced a temporary shutdown after a bank run.

It has initiated a deferred repayment plan, and large queues of users have formed outside the company's headquarters in Phnom Penh, the country's capital.

Related: Crypto hacker loses millions as project wipes out stolen tokens

Huione attracts money launderers

Founded in 2014, Huione Group is a financial services conglomerate based in Cambodia that has a huge customer base among Chinese language users across Southeast Asia.

The company's crypto exchange, Huione Crypto, allowed users to trade with minimal Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) norms and ended up onboarding a lot of bad actors.

Over the years, Huione has turned into a major platform for North Korea-linked crypto heists, cyber crimes like romance scams, etc.

TRM Labs revealed in an analysis on July 30 that Huione-linked infrastructure has received over $96 billion in cryptocurrency since 2021.

Huione Guarantee, an escrow service offered by the company, gained immense popularity among money launderers on Telegram.

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Authorities go after Huione

But the authorities soon caught up.

In March, Cambodia’s financial regulator rescinded Huione Pay’s licence due to compliance violations at the world’s "largest online black market."

In May, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, identified Huione Group as a financial institution of "primary money laundering concern" and proposed severing its access to the U.S. financial system.

Following the FinCEN's warning, Telegram removed channels linked to Huione Group in May.

In October, the FinCEN finally took the call and indeed cut off the Huione Group from the American financial system, delivering on its warning.

The same month, the FinCEN, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) took a collective action and imposed sweeping sanctions against the Huione Group for allegedly laundering proceeds of cryptocurrency scams and heists on behalf of bad actors.

Related: CEO who bought Ferrari, Versace, luxury homes pleads guilty to $200M Bitcoin scam

Bank run forces Huione to temporarily shut down

On Dec. 1, Huione Pay temporarily shut down its operations until Jan. 5, 2026, and froze withdrawals, a local news report said.

The branches of the financial company in Phnom Penh have been closed. Social media is flooded with images of customers queuing up outside the locked doors.

The on-chain security analysis platform Chainalysis revealed in its "2025 Crypto Crime Mid-year Update" that crypto assets worth over $2.17 billion have been lost until July 17.

If current trends continue, stolen funds from services could eclipse $4 billion by year’s end, the report warned.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Dec 2, 2025, where it first appeared in the Bankruptcy News & Analysis section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.