US Treasury Targets Huione Group in Global Crypto Crackdown

On June 26, the U.S. Treasury designated Huione Group and 26 affiliated entities tied to the Prince Group, while the FBI seized Huione’s cloud infrastructure. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis reported that Huione Guarantee, a peer-to-peer marketplace run by Huione Group, processed more than $70 billion in cryptocurrency over five years.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control added nine individuals and 26 entities connected to the Prince Group to its sanctions list. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network amended an earlier rule to name H-Pay Service and any successor entities, instructing covered financial institutions not to open or maintain correspondent accounts for Huione Group to reduce money-laundering risk to the U.S. financial system.

U.S. officials described the Prince Group as a transnational criminal organization that ran romance-fraud operations often called pig butchering. Investigators say the group operated compounds in Asia where victims were groomed, then persuaded to transfer money or invest in fictitious opportunities. Huione Group, based in Cambodia, is identified as a major facilitator that provided financial services and a crypto marketplace supporting those schemes.

Chainalysis, which assisted U.S. agencies on the case, estimated Huione Guarantee handled over $70 billion in cryptocurrency transactions during a five-year period and called the service a laundering front for the Prince Group’s scams. The firm added that Department of Justice agents took control of cloud accounts that hosted Huione’s backend systems and that the FBI physically seized infrastructure used to run the platforms.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated, “The Administration is united in its efforts to dismantle these overseas criminal enterprises, and Treasury will continue using its tools to disrupt the networks behind this egregious fraud and protect Americans.” The statement accompanied the OFAC designation and the FinCEN amendment.

OFAC designations typically block listed parties from access to U.S. financial markets and allow U.S. persons to freeze any property or interests in property of designated entities. The FinCEN amendment specifically bars covered financial institutions from maintaining correspondent accounts for Huione, a measure intended to limit formal banking channels used to move illicit funds.

Law enforcement officials said seizing cloud accounts and backend systems targets the technical platforms that supported the peer-to-peer marketplace rather than focusing solely on individual bank accounts. The Department of Justice’s control of those cloud resources is part of a multi-year investigation into the networks that enabled and laundered proceeds from the romance-fraud schemes.

Chainalysis added a comment on collaboration with investigators: “The Huione takedown shows what’s possible when law enforcement and blockchain intelligence work together. Chainalysis is proud to have contributed to this investigation. Criminal networks adapt, and so do we.” The Treasury action and infrastructure seizures follow that multi-year probe into transnational fraud and related money laundering.