If you’re a regular user of darknet markets, you’ve probably noticed that many of them have gone offline in recent months. This has left many users wondering what’s going on, and whether the darknet markets will ever come back online. In this article, we’ll explore some of the reasons why all the darknet markets seem to be down, and what this means for the future of the darknet as a whole.
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The Rise and Fall of Darknet Markets
Darknet markets have been around for over a decade, but they really took off in popularity in the early 2010s. At the time, these markets were seen as a safe and anonymous way to buy and sell all sorts of goods and services, from drugs and weapons to stolen data and hacking tools. However, as the popularity of darknet markets grew, so did the attention they received from law enforcement agencies around the world.
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Four of the top five highest-earning darknet markets in 2022 were conventional, drug-focused darknet markets, while just one, Brian Dumps, was a fraud shop. However, cashing-out the proceeds of their activity will increasingly become a challenge. As regulation of cryptocurrency businesses such as exchanges has tightened, it has become increasingly difficult to launder these funds. Blockchain analytics capabilities such as those provided by Elliptic also make it far harder for market operators to benefit from their proceeds – with law enforcement investigators and exchanges using such tools to identify and trace these funds .
In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile busts of darknet markets, including the takedown of the Silk Road in 2013 and the AlphaBay and Hansa Market takedowns in 2017. These busts have had a significant impact on the darknet market ecosystem, causing many users to lose trust in these platforms and leading to a decline in their popularity.
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The CIA has its own ‘onion site’ on the Tor network, encouraging foreign intelligence sources to share secrets without fear of detection or reprisal. Another disturbing event was the disappearance of administrators of forums for criminals. Although some of them returned, not all could authenticate themselves by their private PGP key. One of the administrators lost his key, which meant that he couldn’t confirm his identity. Losing the main thing used by cybercriminals to authenticate themselves for the rest of society equals complete compromise and a lack of trust.
The Role of DDoS Attacks
Another factor that has contributed to the recent downtime of darknet markets is the rise of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. These attacks involve overwhelming a website with traffic from multiple sources, making it unavailable to users. In recent months, there have been a number of high-profile DDoS attacks on darknet markets, causing many of them to go offline for extended periods of time.
The examples listed above are just a few of the many instances where cybercriminals are observed acting just as regular marketers looking to improve their profits and market traffic. What is evident is that these markets’ admins show a trend of offering free vendor bonds to try and lure new sellers to come to their marketplaces following their competitor’s closure. Overall, the carding landscape is much bigger than the several markets we mentioned in this post. Moreover, cybercriminals buy cards and dumps not only in specialized shops but also on forums, via instant messaging channels, and behind closed doors in private deals. To reach true success in the carding niche, newly emerging markets need to focus on the constant influx of vendors and buyers – something that the above-mentioned markets have been actively attempting to do with their heavy advertising campaigns. We’ve explored some popular underground forums to see where Joker’s Stash’s sellers and buyers may be headed to next.
- Comparatively, the Silk Road dark web marketplace, which was seized by law enforcement in November 2013, had reportedly approximately 14,000 listings for illicit goods and services at the time of seizure and was the largest dark web marketplace at the time.
- In July, Tor Browser began displaying a “deprecated soon” warning message every time a v2 onion service was accessed.
- Workers handling product categories collected links to individual product offers and put them on the task queue.
- Ulbricht built this black market bazaar to exploit the dark web and the digital currency Bitcoin to allow users to conduct illegal business beyond the reach of law enforcement.
- They are distinct from independent single-vendor shops that also sell illicit drugs, and from other types of fraud stores.
While it’s not clear who is behind these attacks, some have speculated that they may be the work of rival darknet markets or hacking groups looking to disrupt their competitors. Others have suggested that they may be the work of law enforcement agencies, using DDoS attacks as a way to disrupt the activities of darknet markets.
That would be the beginning of the next Hydra war, this time with Western DNMs. Subsequent events could go in many ways there is no way to predict which site would win. Whisper will be a messenger that uses PGP and VPN to secure anonymity for users.
The Future of Darknet Markets
So, what does all of this mean for the future of darknet markets? It’s difficult to say for sure, but it seems likely that the days of large, centralized darknet markets are numbered. With law enforcement agencies around the world cracking down on these platforms, and with the risk of DDoS attacks always looming, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for darknet markets to operate safely and reliably.
However, this doesn’t mean that the darknet is going away anytime soon. Instead, it’s likely that we’ll see a shift towards smaller, more decentralized darknet markets that are less vulnerable to takedowns and DDoS attacks. These markets may be more difficult to use and navigate, but they may also offer a higher level of security and anonymity for users.
How many users does the darknet have?
Even more so alarming is that this number is on the rise, as of April 2023 this figure rose 200,000 to 2.7 million daily Dark web users," the report noted. Those most familiar with the Dark Web are those from BRICS countries – amounting to 28 per cent of those who cited being familiar with it.
In conclusion, the recent downtime of darknet markets is likely the result of a combination of factors, including law enforcement busts and DDoS attacks. While this may be a sign of the decline of large, centralized darknet markets, it’s not necessarily a death knell for the darknet as a whole. Instead, it’s likely that we’ll see a shift towards smaller, more decentralized markets that offer a higher level of security and anonymity for users.
Why did Dream Market close?
Some believed the market had been taken over by hackers and relocating. However, a likely scenario is law enforcement activity. The nature of the message combined with the suspicious method in how it was posted on Dream Market refreshed memories of previous law enforcement operations.
