US authorities have approved the operator of the online darknet market with shutters, including his crypto address, which recently earned money from Bitcoin price fluctuations.
Iran-based Behrouz Parsarad founded Darknet Marketplace Nemesis in 2021 and used it to state in a March 4th statement on the sale of drugs, false identification documents, professional hacking resources and various other illegal services for cybercriminals.
Under sanctions, US citizens are currently blocked from dealing with Parsarad, who currently owns more than 50% of the shares, and the companies he owns.
In 2024, US law enforcement agencies in Lithuania, Germany, closed their nemesis. Source: Chain melting
According to chain Orisis, the approved property includes 44 Bitcoin (BTC) addresses and five Monero (XMR) addresses that received more than $850,000 between July 2022 and March 2024.
The total amount of cryptocurrency sent by Parsarad is over $1.6 million.
While most of Parsarad’s trading volume uses Nemesis, according to the blockchain analytics company, it sent over $12,000 to several other DarkNet marketplaces, including ASAP Market, Secret Market, and Next Generation, and also “indirect exposure to the mixer.”
Parsarad interacted with Onchain and several other Darknet marketplaces. Source: Chain Analysis
According to OFAC, before law enforcement in Germany in Lithuania in the US confiscated its servers in March 2024, the market has 30,000 active users and 1,000 vendors, designed with built-in money laundering capabilities.
“In addition to providing a platform for criminals to do business with, Parsarad has washed cryptocurrency for drug traffickers and cybercriminals operating in Nemesis,” Ofac said.
The agency estimates that Persalad has pocketed “millions of dollars over the course of the market’s existence.”
Bradley T. Smith, who acts under the secretary of terrorism and financial information, said Persalad is also “continuing to try and reestablish it.”
Despite enforcement measures, the darknet marketplace is still booming
Darknet Marketplaces generated more than $1.7 billion in revenue in 2024, but it was a slight increase from the previous year, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs 2025 Crypto Crime Report.
TRM Labs said the Russian darknet market continues to dominate the ecosystem, primarily due to the “low risk of enforcement actions” by Russian authorities.
Related: Russian texts Living in prison from founder of Hydra Market
At the same time, the western darknet market struggled under increasing enforcement and operational instability. In a blog post on March 4th, TRM Labs said in early 2024 that several major exit scams occurred in the western Darknet market scene.
“The Bohemia and Cannabis markets disappeared in January under suspicious circumstances and later revealed that Dutch authorities were part of an ongoing investigation,” TRM Labs said.
In March, Secret Market collapsed due to the possibility of an exit scam. TRM Labs says an administrator known as the “Pharaoh” tried to force users before shutting down the market.
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