Illegal Crypto Mining ‘Powerful Tool’ for Cybercrime Syndicates: UN Report

The United Nations has sounded the alarm on a new stage of international organized crime, where bitcoin mine buzzing in militia-run companies, cryptocurrencies help soak billion, and Telegram visitors 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 document titled “Inflection Point: International Relevance of Scam Centres, Underground Banking and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia, ” records how these cartels are embedding themselves in areas with poor supervision, from Zambia and Nigeria to Tonga and the Middle East.

The organizations are diversifying beyond scams and smuggling, building full-fledged website ecosystems that include unregulated bitcoin exchanges, encrypted messaging tools, and stablecoins, to power an industrial-scale scam market, the report’s authors said.

“We are seeing a global development of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups, ” Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative, said in an accompanying speech.

“It spreads like a malignancy,” Hoffman added. ” Government treat it in one place, but the origins never disappear—they simply fly. ”

The statement pointed to Huione Guarantee, just rebranded Haowang, as one of the main centers in this underwater market.

With over 970,000 users and$ 24 billion in bitcoin flows since 2021, the Cambodia-based app has reportedly become a one-stop store for trafficking tools, fraudulent identities, and con services, many now offered on Telegram as police 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.

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. ”