Our dataset covers all major DWMs that have ever existed, as identified by the European Monitoring Centre, Europol, the World Health Organization, and independent researchers24,25,26. Our analysis focuses on Bitcoin – the most popular cryptocurrency both on DWMs27,28 and in the regulated economy29,30. We focus on two kinds of transactions, occurring (i) between the user and a DWM and (ii) between two users of the same DWM. The result is 40 distinct marketplace ego networks containing user-DWM and U2U transactions, whose typical structure is depicted in Fig. In each network, links are directed and the arrows point at the receiver of Bitcoin.
Market Value And Popularity
The months and years after Silk Road’s closure were marked by a greatly increased number of shorter-lived markets as well as semi-regular law enforcement takedowns, hacks, scams and voluntary closures. Unfortunately, Lightning has privacy flaws when it comes to receiving money. For instance, the receiver needs to provide his “channel point” when creating an invoice. A channel point is the UTXO on the blockchain that is used to back the channel with on-chain bitcoin; that means that the sender can view the receiver’s on-chain transaction history. A CoinJoin is a collaborative transaction that combines users’ coins in order to create a large anonymity set for them. Each coin has its own history, and that history may be accounted for when a user tries to use his coins.
Bitcoin Darknet Marketplace Abacus Market Goes Dark, Exit Scam Suspected
- Saheed earned his degree in Technology and Ethics from the University of Lagos in Nigeria.
- The dark web itself is not illegal, but it’s largely connected with unscrupulous and illegal operations.
- Users interacting with other users form U2U pairs and we include them in our dataset.
- Our research details a thriving underground economy and illicit supply chain enabled by darknet markets.
To be classified as a seller, an entity must simultaneously satisfy the six feature threshold criteria, as follows. BidenCash and other exit-scam markets such as Torzon and Kingdom Market collapsed between 2022 and 2024. They used “free data dumps” and emotional marketing to build trust before vanishing—an enduring lesson in the risks of social engineering. A recent high-profile case involved the shutdown of the Nemesis online marketplace. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) cited the market’s involvement in fentanyl trafficking as the primary reason for its closure. As a result, OFAC sanctioned 44 Bitcoin addresses and five Monero wallets linked to the marketplace’s operator, Behrouz Parsarad.
Top-10 Dark-Web Marketplaces In 2025: Overviews, Use-Cases, And Risks
Abacus becoming the largest Bitcoin-enabled Western DNM may have inadvertently led to its closure. Marketplaces that reach the top of the ecosystem, in terms of volume, user base, listings, and reputation, often become priority targets for law enforcement. Archetyp’s recent takedown followed this pattern and likely influenced Abacus’s trajectory.
Bitcoin’s Resurgence In Darknet Marketplaces Following Monero Delisting
Then, we reveal a concentration of activity around an elite group of participants, where a large fraction of the trading volume is driven by a small number of players. We find that trading properties of buyers and sellers reflect the dominance of DWMs in the ecosystem. In particular, we analyse networks of ‘multihomers’, defined as users that are simultaneously trading in multiple markets. We show that these users play a crucial role in the connectivity of the ecosystem because they act as connectors between markets. Analogously, we identify and characterise ‘multisellers’ (i.e., multihomers that are sellers) and ‘multibuyers’ (i.e., multihomers that are buyers).
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Following Europol’s takedown of Archetyp Market (one of the most established darknet platforms) on the 16th of June, users migrated to Abacus, making it the largest Bitcoin-enabled darknet market in the West by volume. Understanding both the lawful and unlawful scenarios helps provide a balanced view of their practical applications in 2025. An intuitive, user-friendly interface is crucial, especially given the complex nature of dark-web interactions.
Overall, Abacus Market distinguishes itself through rigorous security measures, effective moderation policies, and a strong emphasis on protecting user privacy. Despite minor accessibility inconveniences, these strengths have solidified its position among the top dark-web marketplaces in 2025. Its extra layer of encryption has afforded protection to activists in oppressive regimes fighting for civil rights and free speech. SecureDrop has been used by journalists to communicate with anonymous sources, and encrypted email service ProtonMail developed by MIT and CERN is another well-known denizen of the darknet. The CIA has its own ‘onion site’ on the Tor network, encouraging foreign intelligence sources to share secrets without fear of detection or reprisal. The dark web is an anonymized overlay of the internet accessible through networks such as Tor (“The Onion Router”), I2P and Riffle that utilize layered encryption to obscure the identities and locations of users.
They even have a Telegram channel to provide their clients with live updates. Like most of the markets, STYX supports Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR), and other crypto tokens to keep everyone’s identity hidden on this marketplace. You can even find things such as BIN checkers and PayPal cookie converters. Another reason the Russian Market is so popular is that it’s pretty inexpensive compared to other dark web marketplaces. Plus, there’s a thorough vetting process for new buyers and sellers to keep the community more secure. In a way, it feels more like a private club than an open market, and that’s exactly how the operators want it.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office Takes Down Hydra Darknet Marketplace
We showed that the relationships between users forming stable pairs persist even after the DWM shuts down and are not significantly affected by COVID-19, suggesting overall resilience of stable pairs to external shocks. Similar results hold for the full network, confirming that the formation of U2U pairs is a pervasive phenomenon around DWMs. The total trading volume users sent to DWMs was $3.8 billion, volume received from DWMs was $3.7 billion, while the volume exchanged through U2U pairs reached $30 billion.
In this paper, we look closely at patterns of U2U trading relationships among DWM users. The darknet continues to evolve as a secure and efficient platform for drug transactions, with markets like Nexus and Abacus leading in 2025. These platforms prioritize user safety through escrow systems and end-to-end encryption, ensuring funds are only released after delivery confirmation.
Torzon Market
Moreover, data scraped from the DWMs cannot assess the U2U transactions which account for the largest fraction of the total trading volume of the ecosystem13. Our findings suggest that DWMs are much more than mere marketplaces39. DWMs are also communication platforms, where users can meet and chat with other users either directly—using Whatsapp, phone, or email—or through specialised forums. We estimate that the trading volume of U2U pairs meeting on DWMs is increasing, reaching a peak in 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic).
- These platforms run on peer-to-peer protocols without central servers or administrators.
- These sites cater to cybercriminals seeking valuable data, such as credit card numbers, login credentials, and personal information.
- Therefore, the simple sum of all U2U transactions of each DWM is more than the sum of all unique U2U transactions.
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The number of multisellers steeply decreases after operation Bayonet but they still sustain high incomes. However, this advantage began to wane when major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and OKX, removed Monero and other privacy coins such as Dash (DASH) and ZCash (ZEC) from their listings. Binance, one of the largest global crypto exchanges, announced Monero’s delisting in February 2024, citing regulatory concerns and the need for compliance with financial monitoring standards. “Typically, illicit transactions constitute at or below 1% of total crypto activities. While addressing these issues is essential, broadly labeling crypto negatively is inaccurate and counterproductive.” Its share of the Bitcoin-supporting Western dark market ecosystem also spiked to over 70%, following ASAP’s closure and the law enforcement seizure of Incognito Market in March 2024.
Bonus: The Silk Road
It has built a reputation for being a reliable source of stolen credit card data and PII. Renowned for its extensive inventory of financial data and sophisticated operating methods, Brian’s Club is a key player in the underground economy of financial cybercrime. Valued at approximately $15 million, Abacus Market is one of the most lucrative platforms in the dark web ecosystem. Some are looking for illegal stuff they can’t buy elsewhere, like drugs or counterfeit documents. By supplying stolen data, these dark web links fuel many online scams and identity theft operations, playing a critical role in the darker aspects of the internet.
