Hydra Market
Hydra was a Russian language dark web marketplace, founded in 2015, that facilitated trafficking of illegal drugs, financial services including cryptocurrency tumbling for money laundering, exchange services between cryptocurrency and Russian rubles, and the sale of falsified documents and hacking services. Hydra was shut down by American and German law enforcement action in April 2022, and its operator was sentenced to life in prison by a Russian court in December 2024.
Services
Unique among dark net marketplaces, Hydra provided various criminal financial services.Closure
On April 5, 2022, American and German federal government law enforcement agencies announced the seizure of the website's Germany-based servers and cryptocurrency assets. Before its closure, it had been the longest-running dark web marketplace. The United States Department of Justice has indicted one Russian man for his role in running the servers for the website. In December 2024, a Russian court sentenced Hydra operator Stanislav Moiseyev to life in prison. Fifteen accomplices also received sentences of eight to 23 years.At the time of server takedown it had 17 million registered customers.
The closure of Hydra started the ongoing Russian darknet market conflict among Russian darknet marketplace operators.