Here’s How Darknet Markets Scrambled for Users After Hydra’s Collapse: Report 

Blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis has revealed a brand new report detailing the dynamics of darknet markets and fraud outlets after the previous big Hydra Market collapsed as a result of joint actions from authorities in Germany and america.

After the U.S. Division of Treasury Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management (OFAC) sanctioned Hydra in April and German businesses ordered its closure, common each day income for all darkish internet markets fell from $4.2 million to $447,000.

Complete darknet market income for 2022 was $1.5 billion, a big decline from $3.1 billion in 2021. Different marketplaces probably channeled their efforts in the direction of attracting former Hydra distributors and customers, as most fraud outlets gained their preliminary market share after the platform’s collapse.

The Wrestle for Darknet Market Dominance

As per the report, three main darknet markets gained dominance within the wake of Hydra’s downfall. Whereas their revenues didn’t come near Hydra’s, Mega Darknet Market, Blacksprut Market, and OMG!OMG! Market recorded greater shares.

Notably, every of the three platforms dominated the market at completely different durations. The primary was OMG, whose interval of dominance was instantly after Hydra’s demise.

Though OMG grew to become lively in July 2020, its deposit volumes have been so low that it was extra of a private operation than a darknet market. Nevertheless, the platform recorded excessive inflows as quickly as Hydra went down, most of which got here from Hydra counterparties.

The inflows continued till June, when OMG suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault. The assault brought on distributors and customers emigrate to Blacksprut Market and Mega Darknet Market. Blacksprut additionally acquired hacked in November, forcing customers to maneuver to Mega Market.

Nonetheless, OMG recorded extra inflows and actions than Blacksprut and Mega Markets all through 2022.

An Administrative Hyperlink?

Apparently, on-chain information has proven that OMG’s central wallets use a bunch of deposit addresses beforehand utilized by Hydra, which is owned by a high-risk trade working primarily in Russia.

Blacksprut and Mega despatched funds to the identical group of addresses however not as a lot as OMG. This means an administrative or vendor overlap between all 4 markets however primarily between Hydra and OMG.