German authorities announced the shutdown of Russia-based Hydra Market, the world’s largest and most prominent darknet marketplace for illicit goods.
German federal police (the Bundeskriminalamt) working with US law enforcement have seized servers and crypto wallets holding 543 bitcoins worth over $24 million (at current price).
Active since at least 2015, Hydra had been mainly focused on the illegal drug trade, but also offered stolen data, credit cards, forged documents, and other illicit items. The marketplace’s annual transaction volumes are estimated to have crossed $1.6 billion by the end of 2021. It had roughly 17 million user accounts and 19,000 sellers.
On April 5, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Hydra and a Russian crypto exchange Garantex.
“Today’s action against Hydra and Garantex builds upon recent sanctions against virtual currency exchanges SUEX and CHATEX, both of which, like Garantex, operated out of Federation Tower in Moscow, Russia,” the agency said. “Treasury is committed to taking action against actors that, like Hydra and Garantex, willfully disregard anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations and allow their systems to be abused by illicit actors.”
In addition to sanctions, OFAC identified over 100 virtual currency addresses associated with Hydra’s operations that have been used to conduct illicit transactions.
“The global threat of cybercrime and ransomware that originates in Russia, and the ability of criminal leaders to operate there with impunity, is deeply concerning to the United States,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “Our actions send a message today to criminals that you cannot hide on the darknet or their forums, and you cannot hide in Russia or anywhere else in the world. In coordination with allies and partners, like Germany and Estonia, we will continue to disrupt these networks.”
Cybersecurity Help statement on the critical situation in Ukraine
On February 24, people in many cities and towns across Ukraine woke up to the sounds of explosions and artillery fire, as the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of the country. Such actions are unacceptable, political ambitions of any man aren’t worth of blood, tears, and destruction of millions of lives. We give our full support to the Ukrainian people in these hard times. No more war! Слава Україні!