US Indicts Iranian Operative Over Darknet Marketplace, Sanctions Bitcoin and Monero Addresses

The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad for operating the Nemesis Market, a darknet marketplace used for illegal transactions totaling approximately $30 million over three years. As part of the crackdown, 44 Bitcoin addresses and 5 Monero addresses have been sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The indictment outlines how Parsarad allegedly facilitated the sale of illegal narcotics, counterfeit documents, and stolen data, drawing parallels to previous enforcement actions against other darknet platforms like Genesis and Hydra. This move is part of ongoing U.S. efforts to disrupt illicit financial flows within darknet ecosystems and to intensify regulatory scrutiny on privacy-centered cryptocurrencies, while also sending a deterrent signal to similar operations.