The Collapse of Huiwang's Gray and Black Crypto Empire
On December 1, 2025, Huione Pay announced the suspension of its operations. This is not a simple collapse of an ordinary payment company, but the complete collapse of a gray and black financial network spanning payments, guarantee black markets, and crypto stablecoins, under sanctions and regulatory blockades from multiple countries. The true center of this network is the Huiwang Group. Huiwang's Countdown Once known as "Cambodia's Alipay," Huiwang was the largest third-party financial system in Southeast Asia's gray market and a hidden giant in USDT payments. Its demise was not sudden, but rather a countdown to its inevitable end. Back in March of this year, Huiwang's license was revoked by local financial institutions, losing its legal status. In May, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule under Section 311 of the Patriot Act, designating Huiwang Group as a "major money laundering risk entity" and completely severing its connection with the U.S. financial system. In October, the U.S. Treasury Department and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) joined forces to launch the largest joint sanctions in history, again designating Huiwang as a "major money laundering entity" and accusing it of being involved in at least $4 billion in illicit fund transfers. At this point, Huiwang's fate was sealed. The Hidden Network of Huiwang Group The predecessor of Huiwang Group was Huiwang Currency Exchange (Cambodia) Co., Ltd., established in 2014. After ten years of expansion, it gradually transformed into a large financial group. Multiple investigations show that its capital flows overlap with the business network of Chen Zhi, the "Prince Group" in Cambodia, indicating that a shady background has been deeply embedded in it from the beginning. By around 2024, Huiwang Group's Huiwang Payment, Huiwang Guarantee, and Huiwang Encryption had formed a complete money laundering industry chain, with each entity performing its own function and forming a closed loop. Huiwang Payment: A Front-End Channel for Gray and Black Funds As the core front-end tool of the Huiwang Group, Huiwang Payment handles functions such as cross-border payments, stablecoin deposits and withdrawals, off-exchange acceptance matching, merchant acquiring, and underground currency exchange gateways. On the surface, it is Cambodia's "Alipay," but in reality, it is deeply embedded in the Southeast Asian gray and black market supply chain. According to statistics from blockchain security company SlowMist, from January 1, 2024 to June 23, 2025, Huiwang Payment processed over $50 billion in USDT deposits and withdrawals on the TRON blockchain. Active deposit addresses surged from less than 30,000 to over 80,000, with peak daily withdrawals reaching nearly 150,000. In July 2024, Tether froze 29.62 million USDT in its associated addresses. Although the platform subsequently claimed to have "strengthened KYC," illegal transactions continued to occur. Huiwang Crypto: An Amplifier of Regulatory Vulnerabilities Huiwang's crypto service allows users to directly deposit and withdraw virtual currencies such as USDT, with fast arrival of funds, making it a favored channel for gray market activities. Notably, in September 2024, Huiwang launched its own stablecoin, USDH, claiming it was "unfreezeable" and unregulated by traditional regulations. Peged 1:1 to the US dollar, it supported ETH, TRON, BSC, and its own Huione Chain network, aiming to circumvent asset freezing mechanisms like USDT. This meant that a "risk-free channel" tailored for illicit funds was officially opened. According to Elliptic data, Huiwang's crypto platform has processed suspicious transactions amounting to billions of dollars. Huiwang Guarantee: A Credit Machine in the Telegram Black Market If payment and encryption are the conduits, then Huiwang Guarantee is the "trust core" of gray and black market transactions. Huiwang Guarantee operates primarily through Telegram, providing intermediary guarantee services for black market transactions, covering a wide range of illegal activities from telecom fraud to money laundering, black card transactions, and data trading. The platform not only facilitates transactions but also provides "fund escrow" and "dispute arbitration" to ensure the smooth completion of illicit transactions. Public investigations revealed that since 2021, Huiwang Guarantee facilitated over $27 billion in black market transactions, primarily targeting telecom fraud and cybercrime. In May 2025, following an Elliptic report, Telegram banned thousands of its accounts, leading to the platform's shutdown. Despite this, the black market was quickly taken over by new players like "Tudou Guarantee," indicating that the gray market did not disappear. Shocking bills According to a FinCEN investigation, since 2021, Huiwang Group has processed over $50 billion in transactions, of which at least $4 billion was related to illicit activities: $37 million originated from cryptocurrencies stolen by North Korean hackers (such as the Lazarus Group), $36 million came from "pig butchering" investment scams, and $300 million was involved in other online fraud. Elliptic's estimate is even more staggering, suggesting that the total value of related illicit crypto transactions could reach as high as $98 billion. The collapse of Huiwang Payment is not merely the bankruptcy of a "payment company," but rather a wake-up call for the Web3 industry. Technology itself is neither good nor evil; the key lies in how to fill regulatory gaps and establish a more compliant, secure, and transparent financial system. Only by strengthening regulation and guiding the healthy development of technology can we avoid large-scale financial disasters like the "Huiwang Payment" case.
