A law enforcement operation led by German and U.S. authorities have closed…
A law enforcement operation led by German and U.S. authorities have closed Hydra market’s servers and seized $25 million worth of bitcoin
An international law enforcement operation involving German and U.S. authorities resulted in the takedown of Hydra Market, a Russian dark web platform that had grown to become the biggest illicit marketplace in the world.
The seizure also led to the confiscation of more than $25 million dollars in bitcoin as investigators managed to destroy the darknet market’s server infrastructure in Germany – the large stash of cryptocurrency is currently being held by Germany’s Federal Crime Police (BKA).
Further reports shared in a German-language press release indicate that the investigators discovered 17 million buyers and 19,000 vendor accounts on Hydra, which provided all indications that the platform boasted the highest turnover among the league of top darknet markets in existence.
Well, it turns out that the above findings were true if any of the countless analysis about Hydra market are anything to go by. It turns out that in the year 2020 alone, the marketplace realized eye-watering revenue running to $1.35 billion.
Hydra’s Competitive Edge
A press release by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reflected on Hydra’s significance on the darknet market scene as evidenced by its vendor experience where sellers would easily advertise a wide range of banned products and dispatch them through a “treasure system”.
Against the background of a Hydra’s history of stamping out competition including an alleged DDoS attack against a competitor, the marketplace stood out among its peers to a very great extent.
Well, we can easily assume that a critical factor leading to Hydra’s success may be pegged on the fact that it heavily catered for Russian cybercriminals that may easily represent a majority online.
Additionally, Hydra was also running an in-house crypto mixing service and this may add to the statistics pointing to the platform’s massive success within the darknet underbelly.
It goes without saying that the platform stood the test of time by surviving from as far back as the year 2015. Various dark web markets have come and gone – whether through infamous exit scams or voluntary retirement.
At this point, the lingering question on everyone’s mind must be – what next?
While you may be tempted to believe that the dark web market economy will struggle to recover from the shocks of the latest law enforcement seizure, just remember how past fallen markets got replaced by new platforms as soon as they checked out.
For Hydra’s case, time will tell about which marketplace will step into its rather massive shoes.
