Russia has seized $8.2 million in cryptocurrency from the Darknet server director of Hydra.

Russian investigators have seized an amount of cryptocurrency worth 649 million rubles (8.2 million USD) from the wallet of Dmitry Pavlov, 35, who claims to be the server system manager of the darknet portal Hydra. According to Izvestia, court documents confirm that authorities have frozen and seized this amount.

Pavlov claimed that he was paid "salary and bonuses" in cryptocurrency, about 15 million rubles (189.277 USD) per year, to maintain the Hydra servers. He holds this money instead of selling, expecting the value to increase. Additionally, he also receives cash to cover maintenance costs.

The Moscow District Court had previously sentenced 16 individuals involved with Hydra, including Stanislav Moiseev, the leader, who was sentenced to life in prison for facilitating more than 5 billion USD in cryptocurrency transactions through this platform.