A Manhattan court sentenced Rui‑Siang Lin to 30 years in prison after investigators linked him to Incognito Market, a darknet marketplace that used cryptocurrency as its primary payment system, the Justice Department said. Lin pleaded guilty in December 2024 to conspiring to distribute narcotics, money laundering, and conspiring to sell misbranded medication.
According to the DOJ, Incognito operated from October 2020 until its closure in March 2024 and facilitated roughly $105 million in illicit drug sales. The platform accepted Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR), charging a 5% commission on transactions. In addition to the prison term, Lin received five years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit more than $105 million.
Authorities identified Lin after tracing cryptocurrency movements from the market to an exchange account registered in his name. The FBI reported that a wallet Lin controlled received funds from a known Incognito wallet and forwarded those funds to the exchange account. Investigators documented at least four transfers in which Bitcoin tied to Incognito was converted to Monero through a swapping service before being deposited to the exchange.
The exchange provided a photo of Lin’s Taiwanese driver’s license plus an email address and phone number used to open the account. Those identifiers were linked to a Namecheap account, which the FBI says used funds from Lin’s crypto wallet and exchange account to purchase a domain that promoted Incognito.
Prosecutors also cited Lin’s growing exchange deposits as corroborating evidence: deposits at one exchange rose from about $63,000 in 2021 to nearly $4.2 million in 2023, and another exchange showed roughly $4.5 million deposited between July and November 2023.
The DOJ said Lin shut down Incognito in March 2024, stole at least $1 million from customers who had funds on the platform, and then attempted to extort users by demanding payments to avoid public disclosure of their transaction histories and crypto addresses. He was arrested at New York’s JFK Airport in May 2024 after the market’s crypto transfers were traced to his exchange account.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton emphasized that technology does not provide a shield for illegal activity, saying the sentence should put traffickers on notice. The case underscores law enforcement’s ability to follow cryptocurrency flows — including those involving privacy coins and swapping services — to identify and prosecute darknet market operators.