Catenaa, Saturday, May 24, 2025- Russia’s darknet markets bucked a global downturn in illicit crypto activity last year, with on-chain sales soaring 68% even as international darknet trade shrank by 15%, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis reported.
In a May 16 report, Chainalysis highlighted that while most global markets saw a drop in darknet crypto transactions, Russian platforms surged, led by the rise of the “Kraken” darknet market.
The market – not affiliated with the US-based Kraken crypto exchange – eclipsed rivals to become the top-earning darknet hub in 2024, raking in $737 million.
The shift comes as traditional players like Mega and Blacksprut saw revenues tumble by over 50% and 13.6%, respectively. The collapse of Hydra in 2022 fractured Russia’s underground economy, but many of its affiliates regrouped under new platforms, fueling Kraken’s growth.
Chainalysis observed a growing trend of outsourcing operations among darknet vendors to third-party logistics and tech providers such as iKlad.biz and Klad.cc. Meanwhile, regulatory crackdowns have intensified. In late 2024, Hydra founder Stanislav Moiseyev was sentenced to life in prison by a Russian court.
Criminals are also adapting their tools. Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, is increasingly replacing Bitcoin due to its untraceable nature. Simultaneously, vendors are shifting from centralized exchanges to decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, avoiding traditional know-your-customer protocols.
While global law enforcement has made arrests, including the US indictment of Incognito Market’s alleged operator, Rui-Siang Lin, experts warn that the move to DeFi and privacy coins poses new challenges for regulators trying to dismantle illicit crypto networks.
