U.S. prosecutors say the suspected principal administrator of Dream Market moved darknet crypto into gold — and they’ve charged him.
The Department of Justice has indicted German national Owe Martin Andresen, accusing him of running Dream Market, a major darknet marketplace that closed in 2019, and of laundering roughly $2 million in darknet proceeds by moving funds from dormant site wallets and converting part of the haul into gold bars.
A brief timeline and key allegations
- Dream Market launched in 2013 and grew into one of the darknet’s largest marketplaces, at times hosting nearly 100,000 listings and relying on Tor and cryptocurrency to obscure buyers, sellers and payments.
- After the marketplace’s 2019 shutdown, prosecutors say much of Dream Market’s crypto infrastructure remained intact. Activity resumed in late 2022 when funds were moved out of old Dream Market administrator wallets into newly consolidated wallets — transfers the DOJ says “could only have been initiated” by someone with access to the original private keys.
- Prosecutors allege Andresen used a crypto-service provider based in Atlanta in August 2023 to purchase gold bars from overseas companies; the bars were later shipped to his home address in Germany. The DOJ contends these purchases were part of a laundering scheme that ran from August 2023 through April 2025.
- During searches on May 7, authorities reportedly recovered about $1.7 million in gold bars, over $23,000 in cash, and documents tied to bank accounts and crypto wallets holding roughly $1.2 million believed to be Dream Market proceeds.
Charges and legal exposure
A federal grand jury returned a 12-count indictment charging Andresen with six counts of international concealment money laundering and six counts of concealment money laundering. Each U.S. count carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The DOJ noted Andresen was arrested in Germany last week on parallel German charges and emphasized that he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Why this case matters
The indictment highlights two trends authorities have been tracking: lingering crypto traces left by defunct darknet markets, and use of alternative value stores — here, gold — to try to obscure illicit proceeds. The case also comes amid broader DOJ enforcement actions targeting crypto-enabled money laundering, including the forfeiture of more than $400 million tied to the Helix crypto mixer and prosecutions of individuals convicted for laundering funds linked to large crypto thefts.
The DOJ’s allegations, if proven, will add to the growing record of law enforcement dismantling darknet financial structures and pursuing administrators who attempt to repatriate and conceal illicit crypto proceeds.
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