The German Federal Criminal Police has confiscated the German servers of the Hydra darknet marketplace.
As part of the international operation, 543 BTC were also seized with a total value of about 23M euros.
An investigation is ongoing into previously unknown Hydra operators and administrators. They are suspected of commercially exploiting criminal online marketplaces, providing an opportunity for the unauthorized purchase and sale of drugs, and money laundering.
The investigation into the case has been ongoing since August 2021 with the participation of the US authorities.
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According to BKA, the darknet marketplace users included about 17 million customers and more than 19,000 merchants.
Recall that Hydra accounted for 75% of all darknet revenue in 2020 – at least 1.23 billion euros. The platform entered the top 10 platforms in terms of cryptocurrency turnover, beating the Kraken, OKX, and Poloniex exchanges.
The US authorities suspect that funds from Hydra were laundered, including through the Suex cryptocurrency exchange and Chatex Telegram bot.