When WIRED reached out to Justice Department officials, including one who participated in the original investigation of AlphaBay that resulted in its 2017 takedown, they either didn’t respond or declined to comment. Fans and users of the marketplace are currently discussing its closure on Reddit. Many of its users initially thought its admins had pulled an exit scam, but it turns out its closure was the result of a massive international operation.
Whats Going On With Alphabay Links???
- Prior to AlphaBay, Alexander Cazes had a reputable history on the darknet – specifically in the carding community.
- Markets like Incognito even nudge you to use it for extra peace of mind.
- Although probably the darknet community has never been as big as it is today, we do not see anymore the same enthusiasm or a solid community around markets like before.
- This article reveals the top 10 dark web markets dominating in 2025, their unique characteristics, and the critical implications for enterprise cybersecurity.
“If I were a vendor or user on this site, I would be very concerned with it being either set up for an exit scam or some type of honeypot operation,” the former official said, noting that they’re not aware of any ongoing law enforcement operations that may be targeting the site. As DeSnake describes it, AlphaGuard will automatically rent and set up new servers if it detects that AlphaBay’s are being taken offline. He even claims that AlphaGuard will automatically hack other websites and plant data on their servers to give users “withdrawal codes” they can use to save the cryptocurrency they’ve stored on AlphaBay in case of a takedown. “It is a system to ensure users can withdraw funds, settle disputes, and generally go without a cent lost if raids happen,” DeSnake writes, “even if it happens on all servers at the same time. It is unstoppable.”
Bohemia Dark Market
It is one of the most active and up to date markets and always provides new and updated malware and data. Our team searched the dark web and put together a list of the most active dark web marketplaces in order to assist you in monitoring illegal trade of products, cybercrime activity, and dark web trends in the dark web space. Based on our observations from analysis on dark web data using Lunar, we’ve identified the top 7 marketplaces on the dark web in 2025. We developed Lunar to monitor the deep and dark web, including dark web marketplace sites. Launched in September 2022, Torzon Market operates on the Tor network and features over 11,600 illegal products, including drugs and hacking tools. It enhances buyer transparency by importing vendor feedback with PGP proof.
How To Protect Your Identity While Browsing The Dark Web
Its focus on financial fraud and high-value transactions has attracted a dedicated user base, contributing to its growing reputation and market value. To expand their reach, some marketplaces established parallel channels on Telegram. This further complicates monitoring efforts because now you need to search for the related Telegram channels and track activity there and on the marketplace itself. It has a bidding feature, with new batches of stolen data being frequently added. Active for a decade since 2014, it is a widely used credit card shop used to source stolen credit card information such as dumps, CVVs, Wholesale Accounts.
DarkOwl believes this account may be maintained by DeSnake based on the observation that they leave a similar “Thank You.” at the end of every post. Prior to AlphaBay, Alexander Cazes had a reputable history on the darknet – specifically in the carding community. A senior member from the carding community Ranklez claimed he had evidence to suggest Cazes wasn’t alpha02. Ranklez and alpha02 had a history in the carding community as Ranklez sold alpha02 fullz for conducting identity theft. Your account must be older than 4 days, and have more than 20 post and 10 comment karma to contribute.
CHICAGO — Two men have been charged in federal court in Chicago with operating “Empire Market,” a dark web marketplace that enabled users to anonymously buy and sell more than $430 million in illegal goods and services around the world. The takedown of AlphaBay, along with the takeover of the dark web marketplace Hansa Market in a related operation, damaged user trust in the dark web, which is necessary for dark web marketplaces to operate. WeTheNorth is a Canadian market established in 2021 that also serves international users. It offers counterfeit documents, financial fraud tools, hacking and malware services. It has an active forum and community along with an extensive user vetting process. Some are looking for illegal stuff they can’t buy elsewhere, like drugs or counterfeit documents.
“I am still in disbelief to this day that he had put his personal email on there,” DeSnake says. DeSnake credits his ongoing freedom to an operational security regimen that borders on the extreme. He says his work computers run an “amnesiac” operating system, like the security-focused Tails distribution of Linux, designed to store no data.
No Fraud Related Content
The global nature of this type of crime requires a level of cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies that is both well organized and timely. The takedown of AlphaBay was the result of effective cooperation between at least 11 agencies from six different countries. Known for its publicity stunt releasing millions of stolen card details for free, BidenCash specializes in credit card fraud and identity theft. It is one of the most controversial platforms, active since 2022. You may be shocked to find listings here that are outlawed in your jurisdiction.
Abacus Market is totally against the War on Drugs, which today is questioned around the world, has only brought deaths, abuses of power, spending on public money. We are against of limit people’s access to controlled substances that they decided to get. The will be able to get it from streets without knowing what they are buying and eliminating the simplicity of sharing information with other people in the same situation. Contacting users from this sub to sell them anything is not allowed. This is to prevent scammers and opportunists from flooding the subreddit.
Abacus Market
Gray points out that DeSnake hasn’t published any code for either that system or AlphaGuard, and questions why he would relaunch AlphaBay four years after its takedown without any real progress toward his decentralization dream. “He hasn’t really demonstrated anything besides launching a marketplace,” Gray says. “I’m distrustful of DeSnake, and I think across the communities there’s a general distrust.” DeSnake has discussed that decentralization project since his earliest posts to the AlphaBay forums, and he acknowledges that it’s still years away.
Monero’s Reign
The researchers found nearly 60% of the weapons came from the US and most of the sales were headed to Europe. Worryingly, one gun bought on a cryptomarket was used in a terrorist attack in Munich in 2016. Nicolas Christin, a dark-web-focused computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, verified DeSnake’s PGP key against a copy found in his own archive of messages. But that key, he says, could be in the control of law enforcement agencies, or DeSnake himself could have become a law enforcement cooperator.
Now, places like ASAP are talking decentralized setups, spreading the load across nodes so they’re harder to shut down. I’ve seen some beta versions popping up on forums, and they’re rough but promising. Launched in 2020, Cypher Marketplace sells fraudulent documents, stolen credit cards, fake IDs, and malware. Its emphasis on user anonymity and document forgery makes it a core tool for identity fraud. Founded in 2014, BriansClub remains one of the oldest and most infamous dark web markets for stolen credit cards, fullz (complete identity kits), and dumps. While some of these markets were shuttered by law enforcement agencies – some took the easy way out with exit scams.
We have lot of plans related with harm reduction, some of our closest friends died due to an overdose from a substance they bought adulterated and they did not know it. We encourage to all our buyers to learn what are lethal doses of each substance and to not trust in nobody, buy your own testing kits or send some samples to your nearest testing laboratory to be sure about what you are going to take. If we find that some seller is selling adulterated substances they will banned forever from our platform and all their customers will be immediately warned.
Launched after the takedown of AlphaBay in 2021, Abacus Market has rapidly risen to prominence. It features over 40,000 listings including narcotics, counterfeit items, hacking tools, and stolen data. The marketplace is well-known for its bug bounty programs and robust security mechanisms, including mandatory 2FA. AlphaBay is a legendary dark web marketplace which was by the FBI’s own words the biggest darknet marketplace to have ever existed.
Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Morris Pasqual, FBI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Robert W. Postal Inspection Service Chicago Inspector in Charge Ruth Mendonça. A Canadian market established in 2021, WTN offers over 9,000 products, including narcotics, fake goods, and digital services. It operates in both French and English and has built a reputation for ease-of-use. Since 2020, 2easy has sold massive stealer logs with sensitive data like passwords, bank cards, and initial access credentials.
