Hydra Market

Hydra was a Russian language dark web marketplace, founded in 2015,[1] 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.[2] 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.[3][4] The United States Department of Justice has indicted one Russian man for his role in running the servers for the website.[5]

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

Group of admins/managers running Hydra market were not discovered or arrested.[6]

At the time of server takedown it had 17 million registered customers.[7]

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.[2]

References
  1. Kan, Michael. "German Police Take Down Hydra Market, a Major Dark Web Marketplace". PCMag. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  2. 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.
  3. "Law enforcement seized Hydra servers, $25m in digicash". www.theregister.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  4. "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.
  5. 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.
  6. "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.
  7. "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.
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