Tudou Guarantee, an escrow tied to the Huione Group, refunded about $130 million in Tether USDT to its public merchants since early 2026. Data shared by Bitrace shows refunds began with roughly $3.7 million on Jan. 1 and peaked near $18.1 million on Sunday, and the service posted a Telegram message appearing to announce a shutdown earlier Friday (screenshot).
The refunds could shrink a major hub for crypto-enabled scams previously offered by hundreds of vendors. (Ed. note: Phishing became the second-largest threat in 2025, costing investors about $722 million across 248 incidents, per CertiK.)
In a separate analysis, Elliptic identified thousands of wallet addresses tied to the service and flagged roughly $89 billion in crypto received by those wallets. Elliptic reported that Tudou Guarantee handled at least $24 billion in transactions and launched a U.S. dollar stablecoin in September 2024.
The entity rebranded from Huione Guarantee after exposure in mid-2024 and remains linked to a Cambodia-based conglomerate that runs payment service Huione Pay and exchange Huione Crypto. The refunds and apparent closure may alter the operations of vendors who relied on the escrow service.
