German police shuts down Hydra Market

 543 Bitcoin Seized as World's Biggest Darknet Platform Shut Down

Estimates suggest Hydra Market was the darknet platform with the highest turnover worldwide — with sales of $1.35 billion in 2020 alone.

The world's largest illegal darknet marketplace has been shut down — with police in Germany seizing 543 Bitcoin.

Hydra Market has been accused of facilitating money laundering and the sale of narcotics.

The Russian-language darknet platform had been under investigation since August 2021, and the U.S. authorities were also involved in this operation.

According to German prosecutors, Hydra Market had been in operation since 2015 — and more than 17 million customers and 19,000 sellers had accounts on the platform.

One service allowed users to obfuscate the crypto transactions they completed through the platform, making investigations even harder for law enforcement.

Hydra Market's homepage has now been replaced by a message from German prosecutors.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin seized has a cash value of $25 million.