Published: 05.04.2022
Article reading time:
2 minutes.
German law enforcement agencies reported that they discovered the server infrastructure of the Russian-language darknet marketplace Hydra and confiscated $ 25 million worth of bitcoins.
The servers of the world’s largest illegal darknet market have been completely shut down, according to a statement from the German Central Cybercrime Office (ZIT) and the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). According to the police, there were 17 million customer accounts and 19,000 accounts of suppliers of illegal products registered on the Hydra darknet platform.
Hydra Market boasted the largest turnover among illegal marketplaces in the world. In 2020, its revenue amounted to 1.23 billion euros ($1.35 billion). The darknet market has been operating since 2015 and was accessible through the Tor browser. It was mainly used to sell drugs and served citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Moldova.
German police said they launched an investigation into Hydra back in August 2021. The American authorities also joined the investigation. It turned out that the Bitcoin Bank Mixer was built into the site to make it harder to track transactions. This significantly hindered the investigation.
International law enforcement agencies have stepped up pressure on underground darknet markets. Last year, German police shut down DarkMarket, which had attracted around 500,000 users and over 2,400 merchants from around the world. Such sites have become in high demand during the coronavirus pandemic. According to Crystal Blockchain, the use of mixing services among darknet users has also increased.
Source: Bits
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