Author: Brayden Lindrea, CoinTelegraph; Compiled by: Five Baht, Golden Finance

Stanislav Moiseev, the founder of online black market and cryptocurrency mixing service Hydra, received more than $5 billion worth of money during the course of his operations cryptocurrency, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Russian court.

The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement on December 2, saying that the Moscow District Court found that Moiseev and 15 of his associates organized a criminal group to illegally produce and sell psychotropic substances and drugs.

Fifteen of Moiseev's associates were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 8 to 23 years.

Moiseev was also fined $38,100 (4 million rubles), while 15 of his associates were ordered to pay a total of $152,400 (16 million rubles).

Property and vehicles associated with the convicted person were also forfeited as part of the sentencing order.

According to Russian state-owned media TASS, they will serve their sentences in correctional facilities under a "strict system".

The scene of the Moscow court's sentencing of Hydra. Source: TASS

Hydra was once the world's largest darknet market, accounting for 80% of all darknet-related cryptocurrency transactions in 2021, from its launch in 2015 to its closure in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Justice , its cryptocurrency revenue exceeds $5.2 billion.

It is notorious for selling stolen credit card data, counterfeit currency, and fake identity documents.

According to a report released in May 2021 by blockchain security company Flashpoint, Hydra's cryptocurrency trading volume on the exchange surged by 624% year-on-year between 2018 and 2020 as its criminal activities became more sophisticated. %.

German authorities shut down the company in April 2022, taking control of its Bitcoin and servers in the country and reporting that the service had 17 million customers and 19,000 vendor accounts. German law enforcement also seized nearly a ton of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Hydra has been under investigation by the Russian Interior Ministry since 2016.

Other members involved in the case who were sentenced include Alexander Chirkov, Andrei Trunov, Evgeny Andreev Andreev), Ivan Koryakin, Vadim Krasninsky), Georgy Kierobiani, Artur Kolesnikov, Nikolai Bilyk, Alekandr Kabalina ), Mikhail Dombrovkogo, Alexander Aminova and Sergey Czech.

These decisions can be appealed.

According to a report by Chainalysis earlier this year, darknet markets could generate at least $1.7 billion in revenue in 2023, further growth from 2022 when Hydra shut down.