The amount of money earned by darknet markets decreased from $2.6 billion in 2021 to $1.3 billion in 2022, according to a new study. Researchers from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis attributed much of the decline to the closure of Hydra Market, which was taken down by law enforcement in Germany and the US in April 2022. Despite its closure, Hydra Market was still the highest-earning darknet market of the year. The four other top-earning darknet markets were all drug-focused, followed by a fraud shop called Brian Dumps. The shutdown of Hydra caused a sector-wide decrease in darknet market revenues, with the average daily revenue for all markets dropping from $4.2 million to $447,000. Drug markets' collective revenue has not yet recovered to its previous levels, but it has slowly increased in the second half of 2022. Fraud shops, however, have continued to decrease. Fraud shops usually sell stolen data such as credit card information or other personal information from hacks and leaks. Several of the most popular fraud shops, including Bypass Shop and Brian Dumps, seemed to have issues or shut down in 2022, according to Chainalysis, but the reason is still unknown. Before it was shut down in April 2022, Hydra accounted for 93% of all economic value received by darknet markets in 2022, which was around $357.4 million. The platform, based in Russia, specialized in facilitating drug sales, money laundering services, and other illegal activities. Chainalysis found that after Hydras closure, some of its biggest users created single-vendor shops, which allowed them to redirect their customers and save on the fees that would usually go to the administrators of darknet platforms. Single-vendor shop revenue rose in March and April as Hydra and other markets closed, but it dropped in June as competitors took the place of the big market players. The market took more than 50% of the market share in April and May, reaching a peak of 65% on April 23. It began operating in July 2020 but was almost non-existent in the darknet market before the downfall of Hydra. Upon account creation, the user would select their location and arrange dead-drop-style exchanges from vendor to buyer. Upon sale, the vendor would send the buyer geographic coordinates and a picture of where their well-hidden purchase could be found. Chainalysis said the market was hit with a distributed denial-of-service attack in June that forced users to turn to Mega Darknet Market and BlackSprut Market. BlackSprut suffered its own hack in late November which led to a similar decrease in interest. Part of why these three markets dominated in the post-Hydra world is because each launched money laundering services similar to what Hydra offered. In January 2023, Blacksprut began offering the services of RedBull Exchange and BestChange as options for those looking to take their funds out. Over the weekend, BlackSprut caused controversy when it put up electronic billboards across Moscow advertising its services. It is unclear whether the billboards were hacked or the owners simply did not know BlackSprut was an illicit market. The Record reported that BlackSprut is known for backing the Kremlin and supported Russias invasion of Ukraine. Its administrators allegedly donated cryptocurrency to pro-Russian paramilitary fighters who could use it to buy equipment and body armor.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Thu, 09 Feb 2023 13:35:03 +0000