The Fall of Hydra Market
Hydra Market, the world’s largest Dark Net Market (DNM), was taken down by German law enforcement in early April. The market grew to a massive size after achieving monopoly status for in Russia and former Eastern Bloc countries.
- Hydra Market, the world’s largest Dark Net Market (DNM), was taken down by German law enforcement in early April. The market grew to a massive size after achieving monopoly status for in Russia and former Eastern Bloc countries.
In this report, we provide an overview of the last several months of events surrounding Hydra’s shutdown including:
- A review of Hydra’s history and profile prior to shutdown.
- Blender (the custodial TXO swap service) as collateral damage to the Hydra take down.
- Emergence and profiling of new markets relative to Hydra.
- Evaluating the relative pre and post-Hydra shutdown market activity.
Summary
- Prior to its closure Hydra’s daily revenues ranged from $3 to $4 million per day.
- Three new markets have largely filled the void left by Hydra: Blacksprut, Mega, and OMG.
- OMG, which had a small user base prior to Hydra’s shutdown, received the brunt of the immediate post Hydra activity.
- Mega’s profile is similar to OMG’s in terms of volume and TXOs received. The users of Mega and OMG tend to favor smaller purchases.
- Blacksprut’s average purchase size ($/TXO received) is on par with Hydra’s, elevated far above more typical purchase sizes. It is possible that “bulk” purchases represented the majority of Hydra’s activity, and this activity has moved to Blacksprut.
https://medium.com/oxt-research/the-fall-of-hydra-market-9b358e4dbd5e
archive: https://archive.ph/80d3L
