Hydra plans to issue 1,470,000 tokens, each of which will cost USD 100. Hydra promises participation in project earnings and dividends of USD 500 per month.
Hydra, which is reported as the largest black market in the dark web serving Russia and neighboring countries, says that it is seeking to raise USD 146 million through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to finance its worldwide expansion.
According to an investment memorandum from the website, which is difficult to access without an especially anonymized search engine, the sale of the tokens has been established to occur on December 16th.
The tokens offered at the ICO will have a price of USD 100 each and will be available for purchase on the Bitcoin platform. A “package” of 100 tokens will provide the buyer with 0.00333333% of Hydra’s participation in earnings, according to the memorandum.
Given its illicit nature, Hydra’s token offering could be the most blatant in history, even compared to the ICOs triggering the requirements of registries in the United States in 2017. A Russian online magazine warned that this sale could be an exit scam, something common in dark web markets.
The announcements in the memorandum of the Hydra offering are nothing but daring. By boasting of its capabilities for security and resistance to attacks, Hydra’s team is saying that they want to make public their “contact-free” contraband trade method, in which the buyer, seller and courier never meet.
The ICO of Hydra tokens would finance the development of a new service called Eternos, which is described as a global dark web market combined with an encrypted messaging service, an anonymous search engine similar to Tor, a resolution system for disputes based on Artificial Intelligence, and an over-the-counter (OTC) market.
The announcement explains that, without having to undergo a Know Your Customer (KYC) process, everything will be handled anonymously and at the highest level. They warn that they are not TON, at a point towards the blockchain project of the Telegram messaging application, which requires that buyers of their token go through a KYC review.
Hydra is planning to issue 1,470,000 tokens, which would represent 49% of the new project, and is promising monthly dividends of USD 500 in Bitcoin per token if buyers acquire more than 100.
This implies that Hydra’s operators expect Eternos to generate more than USD 15 million per month. According to the announcement, the estimate is based on Hydra’s growth metrics.
ICO Would Reach Thousands of Users
Hydra opened in 2015, providing a market for illegal goods such as drugs and their ingredients, counterfeit documents and money, and piracy services. According to a Russian research medium, Hydra’s user base exceeds 2.5 million accounts, of which 393,000 have made at least one purchase.
According to Hydra, the number of users exceeds three million, and they make more than 100,000 deals per day, trading cocaine from Colombia, home-grown cannabis, fake passports, stolen official databases, and cash in exchange for BTC.
Purchases in Hydra are made in Bitcoin or through electronic money transfers, similarly to the now-deceased illegal market Silk Road, whose founder Ross Ulbricht is serving a life sentence in the United States. However, unlike Silk Road, Hydra’s buyers do not receive prohibited goods by mail, but in secret places near the cities where they live.
After paying, buyers receive directions on how to arrive at an exact point in a park, a mailbox or another place where the “delivery” would be waiting. The plots are delivered by paid contractors, and the three participants in the transaction do not meet any person.
By Willmen Blanco
