Hydra and Garantex Hit by US Sanctions

The US Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on the darknet marketplace Hydra and the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has identified over 100 crypto addresses linked to with illegal transactions. The investigation has found that about $8 million in proceeds from ransomware, including Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Conti, have passed through Hydra-related accounts.

Transactions worth more than $100 million are associated with illegal entities and darknet marketplaces. Of these, almost $6 million came from the Russian hacker group Conti and about $2.6 million from Hydra.

The OFAC has blocked any property of Hydra and Garantex within the US. Residents and citizens of the country can no longer use these platforms.

The investigation is based on recent sanctions against cryptocurrency exchanges Suex and Chatex, which also operate from Russia.