The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned 49 cryptocurrency addresses linked to Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad, the alleged administrator of the Nemesis darknet market. The addresses—44 Bitcoin and 5 Monero—were blacklisted by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as part of a larger crackdown on digital crime.
Nemesis wasn’t your average corner drug dealer. The marketplace operated from 2021 to 2024, racking up a whopping $30 million in illicit drug sales. It boasted 30,000 active users and 1,000 vendors peddling everything from narcotics to forged documents and hacking services. Built-in money laundering? Yeah, they had that too.
Parsarad reportedly made millions from the operation, charging fees on Nemesis transactions and laundering virtual currencies for criminals. These sanctions directly aim to combat cybercrime associated with darknet markets and prevent future illicit activities. Despite the blockchain’s immutability, criminals often attempt to obscure their digital footprints across decentralized networks. The sanctions are particularly notable following the presidential pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht in January. He was apparently already planning his next darknet venture when authorities caught up with him. Tough break.
Talk about a hustle gone wrong. Parsarad’s crypto empire crumbled just as he was plotting his next digital underworld conquest.
In March 2024, an international team including U.S., German, and Lithuanian authorities took down the Nemesis marketplace, seizing $102,000 in cryptocurrency assets. This marked OFAC’s first action as a member of the FBI-led JCODE Team, signaling increased coordination against digital crime.
Bitcoin and Monero were the preferred currencies on Nemesis, with Monero especially favored for its privacy features. Darknet markets generated over $1.7 billion in revenue in 2024, with Russian-language platforms dominating 97% of illicit drug sales.
The sanctions fall under Executive Order 14059, aimed at combating narcotics proliferation. It’s part of a broader strategy involving multiple agencies—Treasury, FBI, DEA, IRS-CI, and FinCEN—all working to disrupt the fentanyl and synthetic opioid trade.
This isn’t the government’s first rodeo. Similar actions were previously taken against Genesis and Hydra markets. The message is clear: cryptocurrency might offer anonymity, but it’s not bulletproof. Law enforcement capabilities to track illicit crypto use are growing stronger. Criminal crypto users, take note.
