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INTEL
PIG BUTCHERING: now the #1 loss category in the US by estimated volume / HUSHPUPPI: the Instagram that became the evidence -- Case 001 open / BEC: one spoofed email, one wire, seven figures -- see the methodology / ROSS ULBRICHT: full pardon January 21 2025 after 11+ years -- Case 013 open / ALL FIGURES LABELED: estimate vs conviction vs market collapse -- see Methodology / UNODC 2023: $5.4B estimated annually from SE Asia pig-butchering compounds [UNVERIFIED] / PIG BUTCHERING: now the #1 loss category in the US by estimated volume / HUSHPUPPI: the Instagram that became the evidence -- Case 001 open / BEC: one spoofed email, one wire, seven figures -- see the methodology / ROSS ULBRICHT: full pardon January 21 2025 after 11+ years -- Case 013 open / ALL FIGURES LABELED: estimate vs conviction vs market collapse -- see Methodology / UNODC 2023: $5.4B estimated annually from SE Asia pig-butchering compounds [UNVERIFIED]
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COMPANY · DARKNET MARKET

Hydra Market

🇷🇺 Russia (servers in Germany) · FOUNDED 2015-12
THE FIGURE
~$5.2B
Crypto that flowed through Hydra 2015–2022 (US DOJ); market turnover, not theft.
WHAT IT SAID IT WAS

The Russian-language successor to Silk Road: a Tor marketplace for drugs (via dead drops), stolen card data, forged documents and money-laundering services.

WHAT IT REALLY WAS

The largest darknet market ever, handling about 80% of all darknet crypto by 2021 — about $5.2B in total — with a built-in mixing service.

THE STORY

Hydra launched in late 2015 as a Russian-language darknet market and grew after its rivals fell into the biggest of them all: drugs delivered by hidden dead drops, plus stolen cards, fake IDs, hacking tools and a crypto-mixing service. By 2021 it accounted for about 80% of darknet-market crypto and, the US says, had taken in about $5.2 billion. On 5 April 2022 Germany's federal police seized its servers and $25 million in bitcoin and the US Treasury sanctioned it. In December 2024 a Moscow court gave founder Stanislav Moiseyev life imprisonment.

WHO RAN IT
Stanislav Moiseyev ▸
founder and organiser (Moscow court) · open the case file
Dmitry Pavlov
server administrator (Promservice Ltd) — indicted in the US April 2022; at large
WHO WAS HURT
not a theft: buyers of drugs across Russia, Belarus and neighbours; card-fraud victims
HOW IT ENDED
Founded
2015-12
Based
Russia (servers in Germany)
Ended
2022-04-05
How
seized — German BKA took its servers and $25M in bitcoin on 5 April 2022; OFAC sanctioned it the same day

Servers and ~$25M in bitcoin seized by Germany's BKA (5 April 2022); OFAC designated Hydra and 100+ wallet addresses, the first sanction on a darknet market; US indictment of administrator Dmitry Pavlov unsealed. A Moscow court sentenced Stanislav Moiseyev to life and 15 others to 8–23 years on 2 December 2024.

SOURCES
trmlabs.com/resources/blog/hydra-market-takedownelliptic.co/blog/5-billion-darknet-market-hydra-seized-by-german-authoen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_Market
Facts as published in court records, regulator releases and the sources above. Anyone charged and not convicted is alleged only.
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