Crypto and AI: The Hidden Digital Black Market on Xianyu
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Crypto and AI: The Hidden Digital Black Market on Xianyu
Encryption and AI, buy everything on Xianyu.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: San\Laoda, TechFlow
Search for "USDT" on Xianyu, and the page is blank. But change the keyword to "sell USD coin," and a hidden digital black market instantly unfolds.
Sellers use various homophones, coded language, and images to evade platform regulation. "Those who know, know" is the universal password here. Some hide contact information in the corners of pictures, while others directly post screenshots of exchange logos to prove they are "insiders."
Crypto assets, highly sensitive and strictly restricted in public discourse, have not truly disappeared. Instead, they have been disguised and folded into a more underground platform.
"Buying and selling USDT," "step-by-step guidance on downloading exchange apps," "overseas IDs for passing exchange KYC," "Binance alpha tutorials"... Here, you can almost buy one-stop crypto trading guidance services.
The digital black market extends far beyond crypto-related content: discounted air tickets, hotel bookings, reservations at popular restaurants, concert floor seats, soldier AI verification...
On social media, a saying circulates:
"You can buy almost anything on Xianyu."
This is not an exaggeration.
The Hidden Crypto Business
In October 2025, the official X account of the Republic of Palau's digital identity service issued a rare announcement in Chinese.
"Recently, it has been discovered that individuals are publicly displaying forged Palau identity documents on social media and using them to bypass KYC verification processes on various platforms. This behavior constitutes serious identity fraud." RNS.ID officially announced that it would conduct secondary reviews for all Palau ID users with Chinese pinyin names. Users who fail verification will be marked as fraudsters and added to a global fraud database.
Why would the government of this Pacific island nation specifically issue a Chinese announcement? The answer lies in Xianyu's search results.
Enter keywords like "overseas identity" or "Palau ID," and you'll discover an underground network for trading fake documents. Prices range from tens to hundreds of yuan, with promises of "100% passing major exchange verifications."
Besides Palau, documents from Dominica, Nigeria, the Philippines, and other countries are also hot commodities. The quality of these fake documents is constantly improving, with sellers offering customization services, creating fake IDs with the buyer's real photos to ensure they pass facial recognition.
Beyond selling fake documents for KYC, the Xianyu crypto black market is filled with more zero-cost virtual services.
On Xianyu, an account named "Shenzhen Xiaoxia" once sold a 30-minute guidance service for "Binance and OKX download and installation" for 10 yuan. (Note: Currently delisted)
"Xiaoxia" is no nobody. In the crypto world, this is a thunderous name, a top-tier KOL.
Not long ago, news of him taking on 60 million RMB in debt to purchase the top-tier Shenzhen mansion CITIC Xinyue Bay was still widely circulated in the industry.
Why would a crypto billionaire with assets worth hundreds of millions personally engage in "customer service" business on Xianyu, charging 10 yuan per order?
The 10 yuan tutorial fee is just bait; the real income comes from referral commissions. Every user who registers through his link can bring him a share of transaction fees in the future. An active user might generate hundreds or even thousands of yuan in revenue per month.
This 10 yuan business is an extremely low-cost fishing rod. The other end of the rod connects to a vast, sustainably monetizable traffic pool.
If "Xiaoxia's" business is an open scheme, more sellers are engaged in purer "stealing light through the wall" transactions on the barrier of information asymmetry.
A product priced at 88 yuan, "Binance Alpha Beginner Tutorial," offers one-on-one online teaching, promising "hands-on guidance, worry-free and effortless." The so-called "Alpha" typically refers to activities launched by platforms like Binance that allow users to earn potential airdrop rewards by completing tasks.
Participation methods for these activities have long been open secrets on platforms like X and YouTube, with countless bloggers sharing detailed guides for free. But for most domestic users, the wall built by language, internet environment, and information channels is very real.
One buyer commented, "The seller is very helpful, much more convenient than figuring it out myself."
AI "Arsenal"
If digital crypto trading is just a small "darkroom" carved out in Xianyu's folded space, then AI-related transactions constitute a truly massive, universally participated "digital arsenal."
When names like ChatGPT and Claude ignited the world, an invisible wall also rose. Complex registration processes, network environments, and credit card payment barriers kept the vast majority of curious Chinese users outside. They could see the dazzling fireworks of the new world but couldn't find the entrance.
Xianyu unexpectedly became the folk path circumventing that high wall.
The "arms dealers" here offer comprehensive services from beginner to expert.
The most basic commodity is "accounts." A ready-to-use GPT or Claude account sells for anywhere from tens to over a hundred yuan, with follow-up monthly top-up services available.
Which overseas AI applications and large models are hottest in the market? Just look at Xianyu.
In 2025, when Manus, the AI application later acquired by Meta for $2 billion, emerged, beta access codes were extremely scarce. On Xianyu, the price of beta codes skyrocketed from a few hundred yuan initially to thousands, tens of thousands overnight. At its peak, someone even listed an astronomical price of "one hundred thousand yuan," which contributed to Manus's widespread breakout influence.
Currently, the hottest AI products on Xianyu are Gemini and ChatGPT.
The $20 monthly subscription fee for the premium version is enough to dampen the enthusiasm of many ordinary people.
However, Google offers a one-year free benefit for enrolled students, and OpenAI launched a welfare activity for U.S. military veterans and active-duty personnel, offering a free year of ChatGPT Plus. This small policy goodwill was developed by a group of keen-sniffing sellers on Xianyu into a scaled business.
Search for "soldier" on Xianyu, and a peculiar cyber landscape unfolds. Product covers feature various cartoon soldiers or tough-guy images, while product names are filled with jargon-like默契: "Soldier help pass!", "Soldier one-year plus ready account," with prices ranging from a few yuan to several dozen.
A Xianyu user mentioned on social media: "Xianyu is currently the largest AI training base in the Chinese-speaking world. Without Xianyu, most Chinese people simply couldn't use top-tier international AI models."
This statement is full of contradictions yet incredibly realistic.
Xianyu, a platform originally intended for trading second-hand goods, has thus inadvertently taken on the role of "enlightener" and "popularizer" for top-tier international AI models in China.
Buying Everything
Whether it's crypto trading or AI services, this is still just the tip of the iceberg of Xianyu's digital black market.
"Humanity has developed less than one percent of Xianyu's potential," someone commented, calling Xianyu the Chinese version of the dark web.
Xianyu's "darkness" doesn't solely refer to black markets; it's more about absurdity. A large number of shady, hard-to-find-in-daily-life "underground industries" have taken root and sprouted on the platform.
Some products are so abstract, even unbelievable, that they become sources of amusement on social media.
What to do if a worker faces malicious wage arrears?
Someone went to Xianyu and found low-cost legal aid. Unexpectedly, the merchant directly dispatched an octogenarian grandmother to the front lines. With tears, tantrums, and threats, the wages arrived in three days.
Someone wanted to refund an airline ticket and sought help on Xianyu, directly receiving a "death certificate."
On Xianyu, what we see is not just demand and transactions; perhaps it's the most authentic field research of the Chinese internet.
In this field grows the most vigorous "wild wisdom."
It doesn't follow the elegant rules of the commercial world, only信奉 the highest principle of "solving problems." When正规 channels cannot meet需求, or the cost is too high,民间 creativity gushes forth in a raw, even darkly humorous way.
Xianyu's digital black market presents a真实切片 of contemporary Chinese society. Here, there's no glossy brand packaging, but there are the most真实的人性切片:投机,取巧,懒惰,绝望, and the instinct to survive in the cracks of rules.
However, when the path to solving problems slides into deeper gray areas, the标的物 of the transaction reaches its终点, the person themself.
If hiring an old lady is renting "someone else's performance," then the most dangerous business on Xianyu is renting "your own identity."
"Selling新人,交易所," "Stably回收交易所账号,已过 KYC,长期合作," "长期收新人扫码注册"... These notices赤裸地 package and sell a person's KYC identity in the digital world. The sellers'话术 is highly enticing. Some package this behavior as "digital时代包租公," making users误以为 they are just activating "闲置资产,"轻松实现 "躺赚."
However, an account出租 or sold by a novice could become a tool for telecom fraud or money laundering gangs.
From buying a tutorial to buying an account; from hiring someone to solve your troubles to renting yourself out to trouble itself. This bizarre交易链 ultimately forms a terrifying闭环.
We start by using money to buy convenience and end up exchanging ourselves for money.
This bizarre digital soil is both the "民间基建" for ordinary people to bypass barriers and obtain resources and a dark forest潜伏着无数陷阱. It proves in the most extreme way that any suppressed demand will not disappear; it will only emerge in corners untouched by rules, in more原始, more dangerous ways.
Here, convenience and代价 are marked with the same price. You think you're just taking a shortcut, only to find that the end of the shortcut might also be a cliff.
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