Amber Casino and ex-fraud center owned by Cheng Zhi, a Chinese businessman who was deported to China, is seen in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on January 18, 2026.
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Chinese money laundering networks amassed an estimated $16.1 billion in illicit funds through cryptocurrency transactions in 2025, according to a report released Tuesday by blockchain data analysis firm Chainalysis.
These networks, known as CMLN, accounted for approximately one-fifth of the illicit cryptocurrency ecosystem in 2025, and Chainalysis valued the ecosystem at more than $82 billion.
Criminal networks primarily operate through various channels and chat groups on the messaging platform Telegram, where launderers advertise their services to potential customers. The report said these posts often included photos showing piles of cash and public testimonials as evidence of liquidity and quality of service.
Known as “guaranteed” platforms, these Telegram-based channels act as marketing hubs or informal escrow services that connect vendors with potential customers. Although the platform does not control the underlying transactions, it is the main conduit through which illegal transactions take place, Chainalysis said.
In addition to money laundering, activity on these platforms includes other forms of criminal transactions, such as human trafficking and the sale of Starlink dishes used in fraud centers in Southeast Asia, said Andrew Fierman, director of national security intelligence at Chainalysis.
These are very large, well-resourced organizations. This is not a few criminals operating from the back room of an apartment.
mark button
Professor of Criminology, University of Portsmouth
Fiermann said potential customers range from organized crime syndicates to sanctioned state entities.
“We’ve seen everything from North Korean funds and North Korean-related hacking to other illegal activities,” Fiermann told CNBC.
Such Telegram-based platforms are a common vehicle for illegal networks around the world, said Mark Button, a professor of criminology at the University of Portsmouth who has studied similar networks in India and West Africa.
The report identifies six main techniques used by Chinese money laundering networks to launder money, often relying on digital assets such as cryptocurrencies to discreetly move funds.
Fiermann said the liquidity, ease and relative anonymity of cryptocurrencies make them attractive to criminals, especially those looking to avoid having their funds frozen on traditional financial platforms.
stablecoins such as USDTpublished by Tether and published by Circle. USDCis a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value relative to a specific asset, often a fiat currency such as the US dollar. Low volatility compared to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum Helps reduce transaction costs.
“If you’re involved in illegal activity, the last thing you want to do is incur further losses,” Fiermann said. “We already have to pay for the cleaning process… After a very bad week for Bitcoin, the last thing we want is to lose another 10% of our money.”
casino, virtual currency, crime
Button said that many organized crime groups that use crypto-based laundering services often move their funds through legitimate-looking companies.
“Casinos are a classic means of laundering all criminal proceeds,” he said, adding that criminal organizations routinely launder illegal funds by inflating their profits.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2024 report, from at least 2022 onwards, Southeast Asia is emerging as a hub for licensed and unlicensed casinos linked to organized crime.
Although Chainalysis’ research examines organized networks that use Mandarin as their primary communication medium, many transactions also originate outside China, Fiermann noted. These include places such as Cambodia and Myanmar, where organized crime syndicates are known to operate sophisticated fraud centers.
“China is actually very good at cracking down on this type of fraud because they generally don’t like organized crime,” Button said.
On Thursday, Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency reported that 11 members of a Myanmar-based fraud syndicate were executed on charges of “intentional murder, intentional injury, illegal detention, fraud and establishing a casino.”
China has strict laws regarding money laundering and has banned virtual currency transactions starting in 2021 due to its use in organized crime.
As a result, Chinese criminal groups often relocate to Southeast Asian jurisdictions such as Cambodia and Myanmar, where weak laws and corruption among local officials allow them to operate more freely, Button said.
Authorities have been proactive in cracking down on these transnational criminal organizations, but the increasing sophistication of their activities and the complexity of cross-border enforcement have made crackdowns extremely difficult.
“These organizations are very large and well-funded. This is not a few criminals operating in the back room of an apartment,” Button said.
Chainalysis estimated that these Chinese money laundering networks laundered the equivalent of $44 million per day in 2025.
Fiermann said that despite efforts to crack down on these illegal transactions, many of these networks will likely continue to evade detection. “That’s how illegal actors work. They evolve and once they’re discovered, they jump into different avenues.”
