German authorities seized $25 million U.S. in Bitcoin (BTC) after they shut down the Hydra Market, saying they closed one of the world's largest darknet markets for cryptocurrencies.
Germany’s cybercrime office said they confiscated 543 Bitcoin as they secured the Hydra Market’s servers.
German officials say they found 17 million customers and 19,000 seller accounts attached to the Hydra Market. In 2020, the marketplace had $1.35 billion U.S. in revenue, according to German police.
The Russian-language marketplace also had a built-in Bitcoin privacy mixer, which complicated tracing the transactions.
Hydra Market had been operating since 2015 and was accessible via the Tor browser. The marketplace was mainly used for buying and selling illegal drugs using cryptocurrencies, and served Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Moldova, according to blockchain forensics firm Ciphertrace.
The site has now been taken off the internet, according to German police.
