(Kitco News) German authorities seized $25.3 million worth of Bitcoin Tuesday after shutting Hydra Market – a Russian-language marketplace said to be the world's largest on the dark web. The operation was completed in coordination with the U.S. Justice Department.
Investigators in Frankfurt said they were able to shut down Hydra's server infrastructure that was located in Germany. The site has been in operation for at least seven years. The German-U.S. investigation has been active since August.
The marketplace was the world's largest and longest-running on the dark web.
"In 2021, Hydra accounted for an estimated 80% of all darknet market-related cryptocurrency transactions, and since 2015, the marketplace has received approximately $5.2 billion in cryptocurrency," the U.S. Justice Department said in a press release.
Hydra offered many illegal goods and services to Russian-speaking countries, such as illegal drugs, stolen financial information, fraudulent identification documents, and money laundering. The marketplace had 17 million registered customers and more than 19,000 sellers.
"The Department of Justice will not allow darknet markets and cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering and the sale of hacking tools and services," said DOJ's Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
The DOJ said that there are also criminal charges being brought against Dmitry Pavlov, a Russian resident, in connection with his operation and administration of the servers used to run Hydra.