Transnational criminal groups from East and Southeast Asia are rapidly expanding their operations, using illegal cryptocurrency mining as a “powerful tool” to launder billions in illicit profits, according to a report by the UNODC.
Cyberfraud in the Mekong reaches inflection point, @UNODC reveals: https://t.co/I5pS6mDTlR pic.twitter.com/xkAvG9PyA4
— UNODC Southeast Asia-Pacific (@UNODC_SEAP) April 21, 2025
The document, titled “Inflection Point: Global Implications of Fraudulent Centers, Underground Banking, and Illegal Online Markets in Southeast Asia,” describes how criminal syndicates infiltrate regions with weak oversight, such as Zambia and Nigeria.
According to the report, criminals are moving beyond fraud and human trafficking, organizing full-fledged online ecosystems of crypto exchanges, encrypted messaging systems, and stablecoins.
“They grow like cancer. Authorities treat it in one place, but the roots never disappear, they just migrate,” noted Benedict Hoffmann, acting regional representative of the UNODC.
Researchers identified Huione Guarantee, recently renamed Haowang, as a central node in the described underground economy. Since 2021, the Cambodian platform, with over 970,000 users and a $24 billion turnover in cryptocurrency, has become a versatile tool for money laundering, purchasing fake IDs, and fraudulent services.
The report’s authors added that the firm has also launched its own products, including stablecoins, blockchain, a trading platform, and an online casino, designed to “bypass state control.”
“The combination of acceleration and professionalization of these operations, on one hand, and their geographical expansion into new parts of the region and beyond, on the other, leads to an increase in [criminal] activity in the industry, which governments need to prepare for,” Hoffmann emphasized.
According to the UNODC, cryptocurrency mining is particularly crucial for such groups, as it significantly helps them evade oversight by anti-money laundering authorities.
Statistics from 2023 indicate that Americans lost approximately $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency fraud, with about $4.4 billion linked to “romance bait” schemes from Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, in the countries of East and Southeast Asia, losses to scammers during the same period amounted to $37 billion.
To address the issue, the UN has called for urgent multilateral actions, including the need for “monitoring and investigating threats.”
In August 2024, Thai authorities shut down an illegal Bitcoin farm following complaints from locals about frequent power outages.
In January 2025, local police seized 996 mining devices from JIT Co., located in the eastern province of Chonburi.