Over the past three days, cryptocurrency assets totaling more than 118 BTC (worth more than $3 million at the current exchange rate) have been withdrawn from Russia’s largest darknet marketplace for trading drugs and other illicit goods, Hydra.
The darknet marketplace was blocked on April 5, 2022.
Funds were withdrawn from the stashes of the Hydra darknet marketplace, which had been dormant since spring 2022, to three new cryptocurrency addresses:
bc1q56zy5e7tt83zgyv49ftxuztgy68s5zrxsvtacd
bc1q5rv5rh2hyhfv6rfucu40x60ehjdun4yg3ng683
bc1prm0zarzxdrh5c9gz8d8xyfqhu2ymh346fwr9ncqt7mg5cpnq64wsjr2fyq
It should be noted that some of the funds withdrawn from Hydra were laundered using cryptocurrency mixers Blender.io and WasabiWallet.io.
Match Systems employees have previously played a significant role in the investigation against Hydra. The company itself is a leading cryptocurrency crime investigator, investigating over 30% of cases where more than 250 thousand USDT worth of cryptocurrency was stolen.
