DOJ Announces Seizure of ‘Largest Online Darknet Marketplace’

Officials seized Hydra Market, the “world’s largest and longest-running darknet market,” DOJ announced Tuesday. The department said Hydra carried about “80% of all darknet market-related cryptocurrency transactions” in 2021 and has received about $5.2 billion in cryptocurrency since 2015. The German Federal Criminal Police coordinated with U.S. officials in seizing “servers and cryptocurrency wallets containing $25 million worth of bitcoin” in Germany Tuesday, DOJ said. The department announced criminal charges against Russian resident Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov for narcotics and money laundering activity in connection with operation of Hydra servers.