Blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis has printed a brand new report detailing the dynamics of darknet markets and fraud retailers after the former giant Hydra Market collapsed as a consequence of joint actions from authorities in Germany and the United States.After the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Hydra in April and German businesses ordered its closure, common daily income for all darkish internet markets fell from $4.2 million to $447,000.Total darknet market revenue for 2022 was $1.5 billion, a big decline from $3.1 billion in 2021. Other marketplaces almost certainly channeled their efforts in direction of attracting former Hydra distributors and customers, as most fraud retailers gained their preliminary market share after the platform’s collapse.The Struggle for Darknet Market DominanceAs per the report, three major darknet markets gained dominance within the wake of Hydra’s downfall. While their revenues did not come close to Hydra’s, Mega Darknet Market, Blacksprut Market, and OMG!OMG! Market recorded increased shares.Notably, every of the three platforms dominated the market at different intervals. The primary was OMG, whose interval of dominance was instantly after Hydra’s demise.Although OMG grew to become energetic in July 2020, its deposit volumes had been so low that it was extra of a personal operation than a darknet market. However, the platform recorded excessive inflows as soon as Hydra went down, most of which got here from Hydra counterparties.The inflows continued until June, when OMG suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault. The assault brought about vendors and customers to migrate to Blacksprut Market and mega darknet Market. Blacksprut additionally obtained hacked in November, forcing users to move to Mega Market.Nonetheless, OMG recorded extra inflows and activities than Blacksprut and Mega Markets throughout 2022.An Administrative Link?Interestingly, on-chain data has shown that OMG’s central wallets use a group of deposit addresses beforehand utilized by Hydra, which is owned by a excessive-risk trade operating primarily in Russia.Blacksprut and Mega despatched funds to the identical group of addresses but not as much as OMG. This suggests an administrative or vendor overlap between all 4 markets however primarily between Hydra and OMG.