The German government confiscated $25 million in bitcoin (BTC), claiming to have closed the Hydra Market, one of the world’s major darknet markets.
According to a federal police statement released on Tuesday, the cybercrime office of the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office and federal criminal police took 543 BTC while “securing” the site’s servers.
17 million clients and 19,000 vendor accounts were discovered by federal agents. According to the statement, Hydra Market has the greatest turnover among illegal marketplaces around the globe. According to the police, the marketplace made €1.23 billion ($1.35 billion) in income in 2020.
According to the police statement, the Russian-language marketplace also contained a built-in bitcoin privacy mixer, which made tracing the transactions more difficult.
Hydra Market had been up and running since 2015, and it could be accessed through the Tor browser. The website has since been removed from the internet.
According to blockchain forensics firm Ciphertrace, the market was mostly utilized for narcotics and served Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Moldova.
According to the police, the probe began in August 2021 and included U.S. authorities.
