Russian authorities have seized cryptocurrency valued at approximately 649 million rubles ($8.2 million) from Dmitry Pavlov, the 35-year-old who admitted to being the server manager for the Hydra darknet marketplace. According to a report by the Russian daily Izvestia, court documents revealed this month show that the law enforcement has successfully frozen and taken possession of the digital currency from Pavlov’s wallets.
### Hydra Darknet Server Manager Compensated in Digital Currency
Pavlov disclosed during his testimony that he was compensated with cryptocurrency as a form of salary and bonuses for his role in maintaining the Hydra servers. The criminal organization behind Hydra paid Pavlov an annual sum of about 15 million rubles ($189,277) in digital currency for his services. Pavlov mentioned that he chose not to convert his digital assets into fiat currency, hoping their value would increase over time. Additionally, Hydra operators also provided Pavlov with cash to cover server maintenance expenses. In a significant crackdown, a Moscow District Court branch sentenced 16 individuals involved with Hydra to prison in December last year, including Stanislav Moiseev, the operation’s head, who received a life sentence after it was revealed the portal processed over $5 billion in cryptocurrency transactions. Russian prosecutors have acknowledged the accuracy of Chainalysis’ assessment regarding the size of Hydra’s cryptocurrency operations.
Stanislav Moiseev, the brain behind Hydra, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Russian court for his involvement in the notorious online market.
### Money Delivered to Pavlov in Cash
Prosecutors detailed that Moiseev and associates paid Pavlov to lease and upkeep servers with the German company Hetzner, incurring monthly expenses between 1.5-2 million rubles ($18,928-$25,239). Managers from Hydra periodically sent couriers with cash to Pavlov. At the time Hydra was shut down, its annual turnover was reported to be $1.7 billion, as per a Rosfinmonitoring employee’s testimony during Pavlov’s trial. This testimony also highlighted that Hydra took a commission of 2% to 5% from the cryptocurrency transactions on its platform. Rosfinmonitoring, the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service, leads the country’s efforts against money laundering. Another expert pointed out that the net profit of Hydra’s co-founders, considering associated services, was around 100 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) annually. Despite a 15% drop in global crypto sales on darknet markets in 2024, Russian platforms experienced a 68% surge, according to a report by Chainalysis last month.
Tweet this: Russian authorities have confiscated $8.2M in cryptocurrency from Hydra darknet’s server guru, Dmitry Pavlov, in a significant blow to the underground marketplace. #CryptoCrackdown #DigitalCurrency
