The United Nations has sounded the alarm on a new phase of global organized crime, where crypto mines hum in militia-run factories, stablecoins help wash billions, and Telegram hosts black markets.
A new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reveals that transnational criminal groups from East and Southeast Asia are rapidly expanding their operations worldwide, using illegal crypto mining as a “powerful tool” to launder billions in illicit proceeds.
The report titled “Inflection Point: Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia,” documents how these syndicates are embedding themselves in regions with weak oversight, from Zambia and Nigeria to Tonga and the Middle East.
The groups are diversifying beyond scams and trafficking, building full-fledged online ecosystems that incorporate unlicensed crypto exchanges, encrypted messaging tools, and stablecoins, to power an industrial-scale fraud economy, the report’s authors said.
“We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,” Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative, said in an accompanying statement.
“It spreads like a cancer,” Hoffman added. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear—they simply migrate.”
The report pointed to Huione Guarantee, recently rebranded Haowang, as one of the central hubs in this underground economy.
With over 970,000 users and $24 billion in crypto flows since 2021, the Cambodia-based platform has reportedly become a one-stop shop for laundering tools, fake identities, and scam services, many now offered on Telegram as enforcement pressure grows.
The platform has also launched its own stablecoin, blockchain, crypto exchange, and online gambling products, designed to “circumvent government controls,” the report’s authors said.
“The convergence between the acceleration and professionalization of these operations on the one hand and their geographical expansion into new parts of the region and beyond on the other translates into a new intensity in the industry — one that governments need to be prepared to respond to,” Hofmann said.
Some Huione vendors now target jurisdictions like Nigeria, Namibia, and Angola, showing the platform’s widening global footprint.
Off-grid crypto mining
Crypto mining is especially valuable to these groups because it largely avoids anti-money-laundering oversight, says the UNDOC.
By stealing electricity and operating off-grid, gangs can generate seemingly clean digital assets at minimal cost and with little traceability.
In regions like Libya, where electricity costs are among the lowest in the world, these operations have even caused city-wide blackouts, according to Libyan officials cited in the report.
The recent findings build on warnings first outlined in a 2024 UNODC report, which highlighted the increasing convergence of crypto, cybercrime, and AI in Southeast Asia.
That report warned that organized crime groups were “exploiting vulnerabilities” across the region, with their operations quickly outpacing governments’ ability to respond.
In 2023 alone, Americans lost $5.6 billion to crypto-related scams, with $4.4 billion attributed to “pig butchering” schemes traced back to Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, East and Southeast Asian nations reported an estimated $37 billion in cyber fraud losses, most of it routed through crypto-based laundering tools, the latest report said.
Decrypt has reached out to the UNODC for additional comment and will update this story if a response is received.
Crypto mines trigger regional chaos
In March, Thai authorities uncovered 63 illegal crypto-mining machines operating out of abandoned buildings in Pathum Thani province. The operation, remotely controlled, resulted in electricity theft exceeding $300,000.
In neighboring Malaysia, a house explosion in February led authorities to a covert mining setup, just one of many uncovered in the country’s ongoing crackdown.
Meanwhile, Iran experienced rolling blackouts in Tehran and other provinces in late 2024, with suspicions that unauthorized crypto mining was contributing to the strain on the power grid.
To address the issue, the UN has called for urgent multilateral action, including the need to “monitor and investigate threats” like crypto-enabled fraud, strengthen legal frameworks for “asset recovery and investigation,” and enable cross-border coordination through “timely information exchange.”
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