The German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) has confiscated the German servers of the Hydra darknet marketplace.
As part of the international operation, 543 BTC with a total value of about 23 million euros were also seized.
An investigation is underway against previously unknown Hydra operators and administrators. They are suspected of commercial exploitation of criminal online marketplaces, providing opportunities for unauthorized purchase and sale of drugs, as well as money laundering.
The investigation of the case has been conducted since August 2021 with the participation of the US authorities.
According to BKA, the number of users of the darknet marketplace included about 17 million customers and more than 19,000 sellers.
Recall that Hydra accounted for 75% of all revenue in the darknet for 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 exchanger and the Chatex Telegram bot.