Incognito Market founder sentenced to 30 years and ordered to forfeit $105 million

Key points:

• More than 640,000 crypto transactions were processed through Incognito Market.
• Platform revenues exceeded $105 million.
• The founder was convicted on drug trafficking and financial crime charges.

A U.S. federal court has sentenced Rui-Siang Lin, the founder of the darknet marketplace Incognito Market, to 30 years in prison and ordered him to forfeit more than $105 million in proceeds tied to the platform’s operations.

The sentence follows Lin’s guilty plea in late 2024. Incognito Market shut down in the spring of 2024 after a lengthy investigation by U.S. authorities.

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How the scheme worked

Incognito Market launched in the fall of 2020 and quickly grew into one of the larger darknet venues for the sale of illegal drugs. All transactions on the platform were conducted exclusively in cryptocurrency.

To streamline payments, the marketplace operated an internal settlement system known as “Incognito Bank.” Users deposited funds into internal balances, after which the system automatically routed crypto payments between buyers and sellers. The platform charged a 5% commission on each completed transaction.

Scale of operations

According to prosecutors, more than 400,000 buyers and roughly 1,800 vendors were registered on Incognito Market during its operation. Total transaction count exceeded 640,000, while cumulative drug sales topped $105 million.

Court filings said the platform’s activity was linked to at least one death and caused harm to hundreds of thousands of consumers. In 2022, listings for so-called “prescription drugs” appeared on the site, some of which were found to contain fentanyl.

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Platform shutdown

Before Incognito Market went offline, prosecutors allege that Lin misappropriated a portion of user funds and attempted to intimidate participants by threatening to expose transaction histories and cryptocurrency addresses.

After completing his prison term, Lin will also be subject to five years of supervised release.