The UK government has sanctioned Xinbi, a Chinese-language crypto guarantee marketplace valued at roughly $20 billion, in a bid to disconnect the platform from the regulated crypto economy. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said Xinbi supplies crypto services, scam-enabling tools and other illicit support to wrongdoing actors and plays a central role in scam operations across Southeast Asia. The measures are intended to isolate the platform and substantially hinder its ability to send and receive cryptocurrency.
Under the sanctions, any UK-based assets linked to Xinbi will be frozen and the platform will be excluded from the UK’s financial, trade and travel networks. UK firms and individuals — including banks and crypto companies — are banned from providing goods, services, loans or investments to Xinbi.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimates Xinbi processed more than $19.9 billion between 2021 and 2025 and is closely tied to a range of illicit services. The UK action also targets people and entities connected to the network, naming Thet Li, who is alleged to have managed the international financial network of Prince Group (a Cambodia-based company accused of large-scale crypto fraud), and Hu Xiaowei, linked to the Prince Group’s financial operations and a scam compound referred to as #8 Park.
Chainalysis said the sanctions aim at the scam ecosystem’s on- and off-ramps — the payment and marketing services that enable large-scale fraud by exploiting the fast, cross-border nature of cryptocurrency rails. By blacklisting a prominent Chinese-language guarantee marketplace, the FCDO hopes to disrupt the commercial marketplaces that sustain scam operators.
The move underscores a widening policy distinction between legitimate and illicit crypto activity. While regulators note that traditional financial systems have long been abused for money laundering — the Financial Action Task Force estimates 2%–5% of global GDP is laundered through traditional channels — Chainalysis estimates less than 1% of crypto transactions are associated with illicit activity.
The UK’s sanctions follow intensified U.S. action targeting illicit crypto operations: earlier this month the U.S. Treasury sanctioned six individuals and two entities for their roles in a North Korean IT worker fraud scheme that targeted the crypto industry.
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