Administrators and sellers on dark internet marketplaces had a better 2023 than the earlier year, pulling in an estimated $1.7bn in cryptocurrency-primarily based revenues, based on new Chainalysis knowledge.

The blockchain evaluation firm studied cryptocurrency flows from these underground marketplaces and fraud shops over the past yr.

The rise in income came after a torrid 2022 for the business after its largest participant, Hydra, was shut down by the German authorities.

In its place, Mega Darknet now leads the pack with over half a billion dollars of crypto inflows, adopted by Kraken Market and Blacksprut.

However, general the sector has fragmented somewhat from the times when Silk Road, AlphaBay, Wall Street Market and Hydra ruled the roost. Today, no single participant is dominant like these marketplaces had been earlier than their takedown, with directors preferring to specialize specifically varieties of goods and providers.

"Over the years some markets … developed a robust catalog of illicit providers like cash laundering, fiat offramping, and products that enable cyber-criminal activities like ransomware and malware attacks. One such sophisticated mega market darknet, Hydra, supplied all that and more," Chainalysis defined.