Hydra
Type of site
Darknet market
Available inRussian
Revenue$5 billion dollars (lifetime)
CommercialYes
Users17 million users
19,000 sellers
Launched2015
Current statusOffline since April 2022

Hydra was a Russian language dark web marketplace that facilitated trafficking of illegal drugs as well as financial services including cryptocurrency tumbling for money laundering and exchange services between cryptocurrency and Russian rubles, also sale of documents.[1] On April 5, 2022, American and German federal government law enforcement agencies announced the seizure of the website's Germany-based servers and cryptocurrency assets. Before its closure, it had been the longest-running dark web marketplace.[2][3] The United States Department of Justice has indicted one Russian man for his role in running the servers for the website.[4]

Group of admins/managers running Hydra market were not discovered or arrested.[5]

At the time of server takedown it had 17 million registered customers.[6]

The closure of Hydra started the ongoing Russian darknet market conflict over Russian darknet drug markets.

Financial services

Unique among dark net marketplaces, Hydra provided various criminal financial services.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Greenberg, Andy. "Shutdown of Russia's Hydra Market Disrupts a Crypto-Crime ATM". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2022-04-05. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  2. ^ "Law enforcement seized Hydra servers, $25m in digicash". www.theregister.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  3. ^ "Germany shuts down world's largest illegal marketplace on darknet with US help". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  4. ^ Mangan, Dan (2022-04-05). "World's biggest darknet marketplace, Russia-linked Hydra Market, seized and shut down, DOJ says". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  5. ^ "How police shut down world's largest darknet market". BBC News. 2022-04-05. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  6. ^ "Germany shuts down darknet platform specializing in drugs". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-04-07.

External links

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