Russia: Darknet Marketplace Plans $149M ICO for Global Expansion

Russia's largest darknet marketplace is looking to raise $146 million in a token offering that would allow it to go global.

As Forklog reported on Dec. 11, the token sale is almost certainly illegal - in this case not merely for flouting securities laws or other financial regulations.

The operators of the marketplace, known as "Hydra," have ambitions to roll out their model of anonymized, rogue trading for illicit substances at a massive scale.

Hydra provides an anonymous service, whereby couriers disperse purchased goods to designated, concealed spots in public spaces, later to be collected by the client.

The operators plan to use the funds to build out a new service "Eternos" - combining encrypted messaging services, a privacy-focused browser, automated dispute resolution and an over-the-counter marketplace and crypto exchange.

Scheduled for Dec. 16, the token sale will offer investors bundles of 100 tokens, conferring rights to a 0.003% share of company profits.

The tokens are valued at $100 apiece, payable in Bitcoin.

Issuance is set at 1,470,000 tokens, accounting for 49% of Eternos' value and pledging $500 in monthly dividends for those purchasing more than 100 tokens.

The crypto industry's most infamous darknet marketplace remains Silk Road, which launched in February 2011 before being shut down by the authorities in October 2013.

In 2017, U.S. authorities shuttered the major darkweb marketplace Alphabay, through which vendors had purportedly hawked fentanyl, heroin, weapons, malware and a series of Bitcoin-related heists.