A federal judge in Chicago sentenced Raheim Hamilton, co-founder of the darknet marketplace Empire Market, to 40 years in prison and imposed a $5 million fine. The court also ordered the forfeiture of 1,230 bitcoins seized during the investigation to the United States Treasury.
Empire market operations detailed
Empire Market operated from February 2018 until its sudden disappearance in August 2020, hosting nearly 4 million transactions. The platform processed at least $430 million in cryptocurrency payments, including bitcoin, Monero, and litecoin. Administrators collected commissions on each sale conducted on the site.
Investigators took four years to trace Hamilton and his associate, Thomas Pavey, who operated under the pseudonyms ‘Sydney’ and ‘Zero Angel’ for Hamilton, and ‘Dopenugget’ for Pavey, before filing charges in the United States federal court in Chicago.
Forfeiture to strategic reserve
The forfeited 1,230 bitcoins are to be allocated to a strategic reserve created by a presidential decree in March 2025, rather than being liquidated through auctions.
Empire Market emerged seven months after the takedown of AlphaBay. It handled a volume reportedly about one-third that of Silk Road, the earlier darknet marketplace founded by Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced in 2015 to two life terms and granted clemency in January 2025 by Donald Trump after 11 years in detention.
Legacy of darknet markets
The FBI estimated Silk Road sales at approximately $1.2 billion, roughly three times the volume of Empire Market.
Bitcoin was $82,953 at the 9 October close, according to MacroHerald’s own measurement, while ether and solana were down over the same period.
Source: United States Treasury | Data: CoinGecko
