Tether freezes $39.3M USDT linked to Xinbi Guarantee

Tether has blocked about $39.3 million worth of USDT on the Tron network, targeting ten addresses that investigators associate with Xinbi Guarantee, a large Chinese‑language escrow marketplace.

Scope of the freeze

The ten Tron wallets held balances ranging from a single USDT to roughly 10.78 million USDT. The largest three addresses each contained around 8 million USDT, while the remaining wallets held between 1 million and 2 million USDT.

Background on Xinbi Guarantee

Xinbi Guarantee emerged on Telegram in 2022 and has become one of Southeast Asia’s biggest illicit crypto marketplaces. TRM Labs estimates the platform has processed about $24.2 billion in transactions since its launch, including $12.1 billion in inflows observed since May 2025. The marketplace connects merchants and buyers through an escrow model, facilitating crypto settlements for services such as money‑laundering, fake identification documents and stolen personal data.

Related enforcement actions

This freeze follows earlier Tether actions against guarantee marketplaces operating on messaging platforms. In July 2024, Tether froze more than $28 million linked to Huione Guarantee, and in June 2025 it froze over $72 million after on‑chain tracing identified large USDT movements. Earlier in 2025, Tether also blocked addresses tied to ISIS‑K after U.S. sanctions added related crypto identifiers.

Investigation details

The on‑chain tracing platform MistTrack, developed by SlowMist, first reported the freeze. Its transaction map linked the largest wallet directly to Xinbi Guarantee, showing inbound transfers from multiple “Guarantee Merchant” addresses and outbound flows to another Xinbi address. No public law‑enforcement request was cited in MistTrack’s statement.

Impact on the ecosystem

Despite multiple takedowns of Telegram channels in May 2025, Xinbi Guarantee quickly resumed operations, later migrating parts of its infrastructure to alternative messaging services such as SafeW and launching a wallet called NewPay (XinbiPay) that does not require KYC checks. Transaction volumes on Xinbi rose after the Telegram crackdown, while activity on competing guarantee platforms declined.