Crypto and AI: The Hidden Digital Black Market of Xianyu
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Crypto and AI: The Hidden Digital Black Market of Xianyu
Crypto and AI, you can buy everything on Xianyu.
Dédié à des analyses Web3 approfondiesWritten by: Umbrella\Laoda, TechFlow
Search for "USDT" on Xianyu, and the page is blank. But change the keyword to "selling USD coin," and a hidden digital black market instantly unfolds.
Sellers use various homophones, code words, and images to evade platform regulation. "Those who know, know" is the passphrase 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, military AI verification...
On social media, a saying circulates:
"You can buy almost anything on Xianyu."
This is no exaggeration.
The Hidden Crypto Business
In October 2025, the official X account of the Republic of Palau's digital identity program unusually issued an 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 on all Palau ID users with Chinese pinyin names. Users who fail verification will be marked as fraudulent and synchronized to the global fraud database.
Why would this Pacific island nation's government specifically issue a Chinese announcement? The answer lies in Xianyu's search results.
Entering keywords like "overseas identity" or "Palau ID" reveals an underground network for trading fake documents. Prices range from tens to hundreds of yuan, promising "100% pass rate for major exchange verifications."
Besides Palau, documents from Dominica, Nigeria, the Philippines, and other countries are also hot commodities. The production quality of these fake documents is constantly improving. Sellers offer customization services, creating fake IDs using the buyer's real photos to ensure they pass facial recognition.
Beyond selling fake IDs 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/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 buying Shenzhen's top luxury mansion, CITIC Xinyue Bay, with a debt of 60 million RMB was widely circulated in the industry.
Why would a crypto billionaire with assets worth hundreds of millions personally engage in "customer service" business on Xianyu for 10 yuan per order?
The 10 yuan tuition 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 a purer form of "stealing light through the wall" 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 real.
One buyer commented, "The seller is very helpful, much more convenient than figuring it out myself."
The AI "Arsenal"
If digital crypto trading is merely a small "darkroom" carved out in Xianyu's folded space, then the trade in AI is a truly massive,全民参与的 "digital arsenal."
When names like ChatGPT and Claude ignited the world, an invisible wall also rose. Complex registration processes, network environment barriers, and credit card payment hurdles 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 that circumvented the high wall.
The "arms dealers" here offer comprehensive services from entry to mastery.
The most basic commodity is "accounts." A ready-made GPT or Claude account sells for anywhere from tens to over a hundred yuan, with follow-up monthly top-up services provided.
Which overseas AI applications and large models are hottest in the market? Just look at Xianyu.
In 2025, when Manus—now acquired by Meta for $2 billion—burst onto the scene, beta access codes were 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 "100,000 yuan," which contributed to Manus' massive breakout in influence.
Today, the hottest AI products on Xianyu are Gemini and ChatGPT.
The $20 monthly subscription fee for premium versions 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, allowing them to claim one year of ChatGPT Plus for free. 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默契-like jargon: "Soldier can help pass!", "Soldier one-year Plus ready-made account," with prices ranging from a few yuan to several dozen yuan.
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 for trading second-hand goods, thus inadvertently assumed 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 blackness; it's more about absurdity. A large number of捞偏门, hard-to-see "underground industries" in daily life take root and sprout on the platform.
Some products are so abstract, even匪夷所思, 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 over-80-year-old grandma to the front lines. With crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide, the wages arrived in three days.
Someone wanting to refund an airline ticket sought help on Xianyu and directly received 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,信奉 only 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 real slice of contemporary Chinese society. Here, there's no glossy brand packaging, but there are the most authentic slices of human nature: speculation,取巧, laziness, despair, and the instinct to survive in the cracks of rules.
However, when the path to solving problems slides into deeper gray areas, the subject of the transaction reaches its endpoint: the person themselves.
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, exchange," "Stably回收 exchange accounts, KYC passed, long-term cooperation," "Long-term收新人扫码注册"... Such notices赤裸地 package and sell a person's KYC identity in the digital world. The sellers' rhetoric is highly enticing. Some package this behavior as "landlords of the digital age," making users误以为 they are merely activating "idle assets" to轻松实现 "passive income."
However, an account rented 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 transaction chain 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潜藏着无数陷阱. 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 primitive, 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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