German authorities shut down Hydra Market on April 5, 2022, after seizing its Germany-based server infrastructure and 543 bitcoin. The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) valued those bitcoin at about €23 million at the time; the U.S. Treasury described the same seizure as $25 million worth of bitcoin. Those are contemporaneous valuations in different currencies, not different seizure totals.
What German authorities seized and when
On April 5, 2022, the Frankfurt General Prosecutor’s Office’s Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) and the BKA secured Hydra’s server infrastructure in Germany and closed the marketplace, according to the BKA announcement. The BKA said investigators were pursuing then-unknown operators and administrators on suspicion of operating criminal trading platforms, drug-related offenses, and commercial money laundering. Those were reported suspicions, not findings of guilt.
The BKA also reported that it seized 543 bitcoin, worth about €23 million at the time. In its account of the coordinated action, the U.S. Treasury gave a rounded dollar valuation of $25 million for the bitcoin seizure. The figures differ in currency and presentation; Treasury’s dollar amount is not a separate count of bitcoin. Neither figure represents the bitcoin’s current value.
Why reports say €23 million and $25 million
The BKA supplied the specific quantity—543 bitcoin—and its approximate contemporaneous euro value. Treasury described the same seized bitcoin in dollars. Because these are official valuations expressed in different currencies, the amounts are not competing claims about how much cryptocurrency authorities took.
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How large Hydra had become
The U.S. Department of Justice called Hydra the world’s largest and longest-running darknet marketplace. DOJ estimated that it accounted for 80% of darknet-market-related cryptocurrency transactions in 2021 and reported that it had received approximately $5.2 billion in cryptocurrency since 2015. The 80% figure is DOJ’s estimate of a particular category of transactions in 2021; the $5.2 billion figure is cumulative receipts over a different period, not the amount seized in Germany.
What Hydra’s Bitcoin Bank Mixer did
The BKA said Hydra’s Bitcoin Bank Mixer was designed to conceal digital transactions and significantly complicated cryptocurrency investigations. German public broadcaster tagesschau reported that Hydra was used to trade drugs, stolen data, and forged documents. The mixer’s stated concealment role helps explain why tracing activity on the marketplace posed investigative challenges; it does not change the reported bitcoin seizure total.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the shutdown figures do not establish
The April 2022 announcements establish the server seizure, marketplace shutdown, and reported bitcoin quantity and valuations. They do not establish the present status of every prosecution or the ultimate disposition of the seized bitcoin.
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