UNODC fingers crypto, illegal mining and Telegram in Asian organized crime growth

According to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the world of crime has evolved along with crypto. With it, transnational criminal groups from East and Southeast Asia have reportedly been rapidly expanding their operations worldwide, using illegal crypto mining as a “powerful tool” to launder billions in illicit proceeds.

The report is the United Nations’ way of sounding the alarm on what it defines as the “new phase of global organized crime.” A phase where crypto mines now quietly grind away in militia-defended factories, stablecoins have become the method to wash dirty money on black markets hosted on Telegram.

Crime groups have evolved the mode and size of their operations

The UNODC report is titled “Inflection Point: Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia,” and it contains information on how these syndicates have been embedding themselves in regions with weak oversight, from Zambia and Nigeria to Tonga and the Middle East.

It claims these groups have even gone beyond scams and trafficking; they now build full-fledged online ecosystems that incorporate unlicensed crypto exchanges, encrypted messaging tools, and stablecoins to support an industrial-scale fraud economy.

“We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,” Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative, said in an accompanying statement. “It spreads like a cancer. Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear—they simply migrate.”

Huione Guarantee and the recently rebranded Haowang were implicated as major traffic sites enabling this underground economy. The Cambodia-based Haowang reportedly has over 970,000 users and has also launched its own stablecoin, blockchain, crypto exchange, and online gambling products, all designed to “circumvent government controls.”

“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.

How crypto mining is relevant to these groups

The UNODC believes crypto mining has become very valuable to these groups because it largely helps them to avoid anti-money laundering oversight. Not to mention, these gangs steal electricity and operate their crypto mining off-grid, which allows them to generate digital assets at minimal cost and with little traceability.

In regions like Libya, where electricity costs are relatively lower, these operations often cause city-wide blackouts. In March, Thai authorities found 63 illegal crypto-mining machines operating out of abandoned buildings in Pathum Thani province. The operation was remotely controlled and resulted in electricity theft exceeding $300,000.

In nearby Malaysia, a house explosion in February led authorities to uncover a covert mining setup. Iran also has its problems. Rolling blackouts in Tehran and other provinces in late 2024 led to suspicions that unauthorized crypto mining may be adding to the strain on the power grid.

The UN has called for urgent multilateral action to curb this viral growth. This could involve monitoring and investigating threats like crypto-enabled fraud, strengthening legal frameworks for “asset recovery and investigation,” and enabling cross-border coordination through “timely information exchange.”

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