Hydra was shut down

U.S. & German law enforcement announced the shutdown of Hydra -- a Russian “darknet” marketplace that facilitated ransomware, drug deals & other crimes.
- Hydra accounted for 80% of all darknet-related cryptocurrency transactions in 2021 & cleared $5.2b in crypto since 2015.
- German authorities secured Hydra’s servers, closed the service & seized $25 million worth of bitcoin.
In the context of sanction against Russia, shutting down Hydra became a priority  as the U.S. & its allies want to cut off any potential backdoor funding for Putin’s regime.

In this area, the following are recent accomplishments:

• In Feb. 2022, the DoJ’s seized $3.6b in bitcoin stolen during a 2016 hack of Bitfinex -- the agency’s largest ever financial recovery.

• In Nov. 2021, U.S. & EU authorities arrested multiple hackers affiliated with REvil & the DoJ recovered $6.1m tied to REvil ransom profits.

• In June 2021, U.S. law enforcement recovered $2.3m of the ransom Colonial Pipeline paid when it was hit by ransomware.

Additional actions that should be considered:

• Shut down support infrastructure: including the hardware/software vendors, malware developers, money launderers & others that enable criminal gangs.

• Regulate exchanges: Regulate crypto exchanges under the same rules as U.S. brick-and-mortar banks.

• Sanction offshore exchanges: Deny offshore crypto exchanges access to U.S. markets if they don’t prevent ransomware payouts.

• Require ransomware disclosures: Breach disclosures by private companies would improve the chances of decrypting data or tracing payments.