The World Largest Darknet Market Gets Taken Down
Categories: Crypto News US
World’s Largest Darknet Market Gets Taken Down
A German/US joint operation has seen Hydra Market – the world’s largest darknet marketplace – shut down. At the same time, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned wallets and a Russian cryptocurrency exchange known for money laundering. The marketplace offered a variety of services, from allegedly arranging drug transactions to money laundering. OFAC sanctioned more than 100 cryptocurrency addresses related to Hydra, adding them to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list.
The Russian-based Hydra Market has been the world’s largest darknet marketplace for the past few years, even though it only served Russian-speaking countries. In 2021, Hydra received more than US$1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency, which accounts for over 75 percent of all darknet market revenue globally.
Russian Crypto Exchange Goes Down With Hydra
Garantex is a sizeable crypto exchange based in Russia and, according to the Chainalysis 2022 Crime Report, is also the largest platform for money laundering in Moscow, having received more than US$10 million from known ransomware strains including NetWalker, Phoenix Cryptolocker, and Conti.
Illicit Activity a Fraction of Total Transaction Volume
As it stands, illicit activity represents only a small portion of total transaction volume as adoption in the crypto space has soared. The level of criminality on the blockchain has lessened considerably, with illicit transactions accounting for a much smaller segment of the total. Across all cryptocurrencies tracked by Chainalysis, total transaction volume grew to US$15.8 trillion in 2021, up 567 per cent on 2020’s totals. Given the massive increase in adoption, it’s no surprise that more cybercriminals are using cryptocurrency. But the fact that the increase in illicit transaction volume was nearly an order of magnitude lower than overall adoption shows that illicit activity may be in decline.
The world’s largest darknet marketplace are online commercial centers that work on encoded networks, permitting purchasers and merchants to exchange unlawful labor and products, like medications, weapons, and taken information, while keeping up with namelessness. The biggest of these commercial centers are frequently alluded to as "top-level" advertises and have a large number of enrolled clients.
Policing all over the planet have been focusing on these business sectors lately, with some achievement. The takedowns are much of the time the consequence of long haul examinations including numerous organizations from various nations.
The most striking takedown lately was the conclusion of the Silk Street commercial center in 2013, which was trailed by the captures of its pioneer and a few of its top sellers. From that point forward, other top-level business sectors have arisen, just to be brought somewhere near policing turn.
It's quite important that the conclusion of a solitary the world’s largest darknet marketplace is probably not going to fundamentally affect the general exchange unlawful labor and products on the darknet. Different business sectors will probably have its spot, and the interest for these labor and products is probably not going to decrease. In any case, every takedown addresses a little triumph for policing may deter a few clients from participating in criminal behavior on the darknet.