Crime Pays: Global Ledger reports Five Russian Markets cleared nearly $2 Billion in 2025

Category : Market News | Sub Category : Market News Posted on 2025-12-14 04:55:02

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Blockchain intelligence firm Global Ledger looked at transaction activity from January to September 2025 across five of the biggest Russian darknet marketplaces — Mega, Kraken, BlackSprut, Omg!Omg!, and Nova.(https://app.globalledger.io/hubfs/Press%20Materials/Darknet%20Investigation.pdf)

It found that funds were sent through at least 20 centralized exchanges holding over 130 international licenses, using a complex network that takes advantage of the weak points between on-chain transparency and off-chain compliance.

Nova Market was the smallest with just $3 million, Mega Market took in $75 million followed by OMG!OMG at $100 million, then BlackSprut at $300 million and the largest by far Kraken at $1.3 BIllion!

Bitcoin and Monero remain the main payment methods across all the markets.
Only two standalone drug vendors showed USDT usage, one of which is likely
part of a bigger illicit network.

MEGA

From Jan 1, 2025, to Sept 10, 2025, MEGA received 303.95884459 BTC (~$36.75
million at the time of the research) and sent 323.17848976 BTC (~$39.08 million).
Exchanges, OTCs, and darknet marketplaces are its top source and use of funds
entities in terms of volumes. At least 13 licensed CEXs holding 80 licenses were
exposed to MEGA. Exchanges sent ~$13.09 million to this darknet marketplace and
received ~$13.35 million from it.

As of August 2025, the platform doesn’t provide deposit wallets for direct USDT
deposits, and there are very few listings priced in USDT. However, a month before, it
was possible to top up the balance with USDT on TRON

This change may be linked to the blocking of the Garantex exchange, when
Tether froze its wallets, preventing the sanctioned exchange from moving
several million USDT

The marketplace also offers deposits through the overload[.]cash service. This option
lets users top up their balance in rubles via direct card transfers or the fast payment
system. The exchange is available only in the RUB/BTC pair.

Kraken

Kraken’s volumes are higher: the source of funds amounted to 5,627.17 BTC
(~$641 million), while the use of funds totalled 5,868.49 BTC (~$668 million).
At least 9 CEXs with 66 international licenses sent ~$86.44 million to Kraken
darknet and received ~$82.6 million from it.

Kraken uses Bitcoin as a payment method. Each user receives a unique, permanent
Bitcoin deposit address for their balance.

Additionally, many OTC services are used for deposits. They accept direct transfers in
rubles — from card to card, via the fast payment system, or to a mobile balance.

OMG!OMG!

From Jan 1, 2025, to Sept 11, 2025, OMG!OMG! received 539.73 BTC (~$61.54 million).
The use of funds slightly exceeded it at 543.13 BTC (~$61.92 million).
At least six centralized exchanges with 39 licenses received ~$9.81 million from this
darknet and sent ~$14.26 million to it.
The only direct crypto payment method accepted by the OMG!OMG! marketplace is
Bitcoin. Each user gets their own permanent deposit address.

As an alternative, the platform also links to an OTC service called “Instant BTC
Exchange 24/7” (Моментальный обмен BTC 24/7), which lets users exchange
rubles for BTC through card-to-card transfers or the fast payment system.

BlackSprut

From Jan 1, 2025, to Sept 11, 2025, BlackSprut received 1,501.58 BTC (~$171.26 million)
and sent 1,513.94 BTC (~$172.67 million).
As for exchanges, at least 20 CEXs with 111 licenses in total got exposed to this
marketplace. They received ~$256,800 from BlackSprut and sent ~$68.1 million to it.
The payment method on BlackSprut is Bitcoin, and like other darknet marketplaces,
it provides each user with a unique, permanent deposit address.

NOVA

Nova’s volumes are smaller: from Jan 1, 2025, to Sept 9, 2025, it received 13.06 BTC
(~$1.44 million) and sent 14.96 BTC (~$1.66 million).
At least 14 centralized exchanges with a total of 104 licenses were exposed to the
Nova darknet. CEXs received ~$327,981 from Nova and sent $539,620 to it.
Here, the payment methods are Bitcoin and Monero. Each user gets a permanent,
unique wallet address for making deposits.

All analyzed Markets provide users with permanent BTC deposit
addresses, and some also support XMR for added privacy.
USDT plays only a minor role. Among the analyzed platforms, MEGA was
the only one to support USDT top‑ups, and even that option was later
disabled following Garantex’s wallet freeze.

Go!