Alleged Dream Market Admin Accused Of Laundering Crypto Into Gold Bars

U.S. prosecutors have charged German citizen Owe Martin Andresen, the alleged main administrator of darknet marketplace Dream Market, with laundering funds tied to the platform years after it shut down.

Andresen, 49, was arrested in Germany on May 7 on parallel German charges. A federal grand jury in the U.S. returned an indictment on January 13, charging him with six counts of international concealment money laundering and six counts of concealment money laundering. Each U.S. count carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. German charges carry potential penalties of up to five years per count.

The DOJ said Andresen is suspected of using the moniker “Speedstepper,” described by prosecutors as Dream Market’s main administrator. Dream Market operated from 2013 until its 2019 shutdown and became one of the largest illicit marketplaces on the darknet, with close to 100,000 listings at a given time.

Prosecutors said the marketplace facilitated sales of illegal drugs, stolen personally identifiable information, counterfeit identification documents and other illicit goods. The DOJ tied Dream Market to sales involving more than 90 kilograms of heroin, 450 kilograms of cocaine, 45 kilograms of methamphetamine and 36 kilograms of fentanyl between 2013 and 2019.

Dormant Wallets Became The Center Of The Case

The case turns on what happened after Dream Market closed. Prosecutors said the marketplace’s crypto infrastructure stayed largely untouched after 2019, including wallets that held millions of dollars in administrator commission payments.

In November and December 2022, Andresen allegedly accessed those Dream Market wallets and transferred funds into new consolidated cryptocurrency wallets. Prosecutors said that movement could only have been initiated by someone with access to Dream Market’s original private keys, making the dormant wallet activity central to the government’s theory.

The laundering activity allegedly continued into physical assets. Beginning in August 2023, prosecutors said Andresen used a cryptocurrency service provider based in Atlanta, Georgia, to buy gold bars from international companies with funds held in the consolidated wallets. The gold bars were allegedly shipped to his home address in Germany.

In total, prosecutors allege Andresen laundered more than $2 million between August 2023 and April 2025.

Gold Bars, Cash And Crypto-Linked Accounts Seized

The May 7 arrest was part of a coordinated U.S. and German law enforcement operation. Authorities searched Andresen’s residence and two other locations, seizing approximately $1.7 million in gold bars allegedly purchased with Dream Market funds, along with more than $23,000 in cash.

Investigators also found information identifying several bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets containing about $1.2 million believed to be proceeds from Dream Market.

The case is being investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation’s Cyber Crimes Unit and the DEA Miami Counternarcotic Cyber Investigations Task Force, with assistance from German law enforcement, including the Bundeskriminalamt Cybercrime Unit and Zentrale Kriminalinspektion Oldenburg. A broader multi-agency task force previously investigated Dream Market between 2016 and 2022.

The indictment contains allegations, not a conviction. Andresen is presumed innocent unless and until prosecutors prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. The next phase of the case now sits across two jurisdictions, with U.S. and German authorities pursuing parallel money laundering proceedings tied to the same alleged darknet proceeds.

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