The mastermind behind one of the largest and most sophisticated black-market operations in the industry has been handed a life sentence by a Russian court.
The development was reported by various sources and was amplified on X by the popular crypto show Maria Nawfal’s roundtable.
“ DARKNET BOSS GETS LIFE SENTENCE Stanislav Moiseev — the man behind Hydra — aka the darknet’s “Amazon” — just got slammed with a life sentence in Russia. His squad of 15 will join him in jail for the slinging of illicit goods on the platform and laundering billions of dollars.
Hydra was the kingpin of darknet crypto, owning 80% of the market in 2021, until German authorities shut it down in 2022. Servers seized, Bitcoin bagged, and dreams crushed. Moral of the story? Don’t let your decentralized dream outgrow common sense”. Maria Nawfal tweeted.
Stanislav Moiseev facilitated over $5 billion in transactions through his crypto-mixing platform Hydra which became the largest darknet marketplace in the world.
The Moscow Regional Court handed Moiseev and 15 other accomplices their sentences for organizing a criminal enterprise and engaging in the illegal production and distribution of psychotropic substances.
Accomplices handed lesser Prison sentences
Stanislav Moiseev’s accomplices were handed lesser sentences by the Russian court ranging from 8 to 23 years. Moiseev was fined $32,000 while his accomplices got $152,400 in penalties.
Properties and cars belonging to Moiseev and his accomplices were confiscated after the trial.
$5.2 Billion in 7 years of operation
The US Justice Department revealed that Hydra processed approximately $5.2 billion in transactions from 2015 to 2022. The platform accounted for over 80% of darknet crypto-related transactions in 2021.
- Besides crypto mixing, the platform was notorious for other illicit activities ranging from selling stolen credit card information, counterfeit currency, and fake identity cards.
- Hydra was punctured by Blockchain security firm Flashpoint, now affiliated with TRM Labs.
- The Firm reported a 624% surge in Hydra’s crypto volumes on exchanges between 2018 and 2020, indicating a peak in criminal transaction traffic.
- The platform was nabbed in April 2022, when German authorities seized its servers and Bitcoin servers shutting down the operation.
At the time of its bust, Hydra had 17 million customers and 19,000 vendor accounts. German authorities also seized a tonne of narcotics and Psychotropic substances during the raid.
Moiseev’s accomplices include Alexander Chirkov, Andrei Trunov, Evgeny Andreev, and others. Their sentences remain subject to appeal
What to know
- Chainalysis data revealed that darknet revenues surpassed $1.7 billion in 2023 surpassing 2022 levels. This means that the darknet sector is still thriving even after the takedown of one of its largest platforms.
- A darknet market is a commercial website on the dark web that operates via darknets such as Tor and I2P.