Underground Crypto Trading in Cambodia: How Criminal Networks Turned a Ban into a $15 Billion Empire

When Cambodia banned cryptocurrency in 2019, officials thought they’d shut down the flow of digital cash. Instead, they created the perfect conditions for one of the largest criminal enterprises in modern history.

The Ban That Backfired

The National Bank of Cambodia’s 2019 directive didn’t stop people from using crypto-it pushed it underground. With no legal exchanges, no oversight, and no way to report fraud, the country became a magnet for organized crime. While banks were told to block crypto transactions, millions of Cambodians kept trading anyway. A 2025 survey found 10.63% of the population still used digital assets, even with the ban in place. That’s not just stubbornness-it’s demand. And criminals were ready to fill the gap.

How the Prince Group Built a Crime Empire

At the heart of this underground system is the Prince Group, a criminal network that turned scam compounds into high-tech fraud factories. These weren’t just offices-they were prisons. People were lured from China, Vietnam, and even the U.S. with fake job offers. Once they arrived in Sihanoukville or Chrey Thom, their passports were taken. They were forced to work 18-hour days, calling victims on WhatsApp and Telegram, pretending to be crypto traders who’d made millions.

Victims in the U.S., South Korea, and Australia were told they could double their money in weeks. They sent Bitcoin. They sent Ethereum. And then they vanished. No returns. No refunds. Just silence. The Prince Group didn’t just run scams-they ran them like a Fortune 500 company. They had HR departments, performance targets, and punishment systems. Workers who missed their daily fraud quotas were beaten. Some were electrocuted. Others were locked in cages.

Huione Guarantee: The Money Laundry

The money didn’t stay in cash. It flowed through Huione Guarantee, a shadowy financial operation founded in 2014 that became the central hub for laundering crypto from scams, ransomware, and dark web sales. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Huione processed at least $4 billion between 2021 and early 2025. That includes $37 million from North Korean hackers, $36 million from fake crypto investment schemes, and $300 million from other cybercrimes.

Huione didn’t use banks. It used Telegram. It built a whole ecosystem on the app-vendors selling stolen identities, fake KYC documents, and mixing services that made Bitcoin untraceable. When Telegram shut them down in 2015, they just moved deeper into encrypted channels. By 2024, they were moving $8.9 million in crypto from South Korean exchanges alone. That number jumped 1,400% from the year before.

The Global Reach of a Local Crime

This wasn’t just a Cambodia problem. The Brooklyn Network, a laundering pipeline documented by TRM Labs, moved over $18 million from U.S. victims directly into Prince Group accounts. Victims lost between $5,000 and $250,000 each. Many were retirees. Some were college students. All were tricked by slick websites that looked just like Binance or Kucoin.

The Prince Group didn’t just take money-they integrated it into the real economy. They bought hotels. They owned casinos. They used fake business licenses to make their money look clean. One compound, the Jinbei Hotel and Casino, was listed as a legitimate tourist attraction. Inside, it was a forced labor camp. The U.S. Justice Department called it a “front for transnational criminal activity.”

Why Cambodia? Why Now?

Cambodia’s weak financial oversight made it the ideal playground. Ranked 128th out of 180 countries in corruption perception in 2024, it had little appetite for enforcing rules that didn’t benefit the powerful. Cash still dominates the economy. Bank accounts are easy to open. Officials are often paid to look away.

Meanwhile, neighboring countries cracked down. Vietnam requires strict AML checks. Thailand licenses exchanges. Cambodia? It did nothing-until 2024. That’s when the National Bank of Cambodia introduced Prakas B7-024-735 Prokor, a new licensing system meant to bring crypto into the light. But instead of stopping crime, it gave criminals a new tool. Now, they could get official permits, open bank accounts under fake names, and launder money under the guise of legality.

The Billion Crackdown

On October 14, 2025, everything changed. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil complaint against the Prince Group, naming Huione Guarantee as a key player. They didn’t just sue-they seized $15 billion in Bitcoin. That’s the largest asset forfeiture in U.S. history.

The operation was a global effort. The U.K., South Korea, and Australia coordinated with U.S. agencies. Exchanges like Binance and Kucoin cut off all Cambodian-linked accounts. Telegram shut down remaining channels. The Prince Group’s internal documents, including emails that mentioned “BTC laundering” and “underground money houses,” were made public.

But here’s the twist: even after the seizure, transactions with Huione kept growing. By October 20, 2025, South Korean exchanges had sent another $3.15 billion won ($2.2 million) to Cambodian wallets. The network didn’t die-it adapted.

What Happens Next?

The Cambodian government now says it’s serious about reform. It’s exploring a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to replace underground crypto. But CBDCs take years to roll out. And in the meantime, the criminals are already planning their next move.

Some experts warn this could become the new drug trade. Jacob Sims from Harvard’s Asia Center called it “the top form of financial crime impacting Americans now and maybe ever in history.” The profits? Bigger than cocaine. The reach? Global. The victims? Millions.

For now, the underground market survives. The scams still run. The money still moves. And until Cambodia’s institutions become as strong as its criminals, this won’t end.