Google Removes Huione App from Play Store Amid Money Laundering Allegations

Google took down Huione’s mobile application from the Play Store due to allegations of illegal activities being conducted on it.

The app known as Huione Guarantee, which Elliptic referred to as the largest unlawful marketplace, was removed from the Google Play Store due to charges of money laundering and illegal activities. Nevertheless, this application can still be found on the Apple iOS App Store.

The Huione Guarantee platform, which operates on Telegram, has gained infamy for being a popular spot for unscrupulous individuals in Southeast Asia. As per findings by cryptocurrency research firm Elliptic, this marketplace is frequently used to carry out illicit activities such as cybercrimes and hacking.

elliptic asserted that Huione frequently showcases numerous advertisements linked to widespread illegal activities, such as money laundering and trading in compromised personal information.

Moreover, the study’s findings indicated that sellers within this platform provide hardware and instructional resources for carrying out fraudulent activities and scams. The marketplace, with an estimated 900,000 users as of January 14th, has also recently introduced its own stablecoin, known as USDH.

It seems that their introduction of a stablecoin was likely an action taken following Tether’s freezing of a Huione account associated with the North Korean hacking group Lazarus in July.

A company specializing in on-chain analysis, Bitrace, identified approximately 29.62 million USDT tied to Huione Pay, an associate of a Cambodian firm, as being locked in tokens. Simultaneously, Elliptic characterized the platform as a “hotspot for crypto fraudsters” and “the largest online illegal marketplace ever to function.

☀️Approximately 29.62 million USDT accounts associated with the assurance business of the Cambodian Huione Group for the given month have been temporarily locked. (1/n)

For additional information, please find it below.

— Bitrace (@Bitrace_team) July 14, 2024

After the recent release by Elliptic, it seems that Huione Guarantee has chosen to change its name to Haowang Guarantee, possibly as a strategy to hide past actions and minimize additional public attention or criticism.

The entity operates a self-managed blockchain known as Huione Chain, which features the USDH stablecoin. This stablecoin can be accessed on multiple platforms including Ethereum (ETH), Binance Smart Chain (BNB), and Tron (TRX) networks. It’s worth mentioning that another fiat-backed token by Hubble, a protocol running on Solana, also bears the same name as USDH.

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2025-01-16 21:16