For each entity, we keep track of the cumulative values of the six features for each transaction performed by the entity over time. To be classified as a seller, an entity must simultaneously satisfy the six feature threshold criteria, as dark web markets follows. From 2012 to 2016, the largest component of S2S network continuously grows in number of nodes and connections, as shown in Fig. Then, during 2017 and 2018, it shows the structural change due to operation Bayonet, when it shrinks.

Security & Anonymity Model (as described publicly)

To answer this question, we consider the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the evolution of stable U2U pairs. Previous studies reported that COVID-19 had a strong impact on DWMs due to delays and damage to the shipping infrastructure caused by border closures37,38. We start by investigating the number of new stable U2U pairs and their trading volume during the COVID-19 period. Users in stable pairs meeting both inside and outside DWMs have been growing over the last two years, since the shutdown of AlphaBay9, the largest DWM at the time. In 2020, a total of 6778 pairs of users in stable pairs met inside a DWM, corresponding to 192% of the 2019 level and to 255% of the 2018 level, see Fig. Pairs of users in stable pairs meeting inside a DWM traded for a total of $145 million in 2020, which corresponds to 252% of the 2019 level, and to 593% of the 2018 level, see Fig.

The Evolution of Darknet Markets: Secure Trade and Technological Advancements

Scammed funds are also increasingly moving through decentralized protocols. We use data of DWM transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain pre-processed by Chainalysis Inc. Although other coins are used, such as Monero recently, Bitcoin is still the mostly used in the ecosystem, being supported by more than 93% of markets7,9. The pre-processing relies on established state-of-the-art heuristics to cluster addresses into entities, such as cospending, intelligence-base, and behavioral clustering39,40,41,42. The resulting data set includes for each transaction the source and destination entities, the time, and the value of the transaction. Over the last year, “Alex,” the drug dealer from Moscow, said a new genre of content has been growing on Russian Telegram profiles.

News

Beware of sharing your financial details on the dark web, as this can result in identity theft and your bank account being compromised. It’s another dark net marketplace that grabbed a lot of attention was the Hydra market. It accepted payments through Bitcoin and the Escrow system and ensured that users’ identities remain anonymous during their purchases. Cypher marketplace has been on the list of the best dark web shops for a while and deals with the business of a variety of products and services.

Financing and fraud

The website utilizes a valid SSL certificate issued by Google Trust Services, expiring in 2026, indicating basic encryption and identity verification. Hosted in Canada and utilizing Cloudflare suggests efforts to improve performance and potentially mitigate DDoS attacks. A significant positive signal is that Google Safe Browsing reports the domain as clean, indicating no detected malware or phishing attempts. This is a strong indicator that Google does not currently see the website as malicious. It uses ring signatures and stealth addresses to obscure transaction details.

How Law Enforcement Impacts Marketplace Stability

Every location where personal data is stored is a potential target for cybercriminals. Here are some methods to thwart unauthorized access to your data repositories. Fake online casinos and social networks are common methods for distributing malware. To avoid infection, it’s best to avoid downloading anything from untrusted sources or websites. Many people also prefer to buy goods and services online, which allows for more opportunities to steal people’s personal data and financial information. In one particularly devastating case, a man lost his entire $80,000 pension.

U2U network evolution

With over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and marketing, Ben has held leadership roles at companies like Check Point, Cognyte, Cylus, and Ionix. An award-winning cybercrime threat intelligence firm, KELA’s mission is to provide 100% real, actionable intelligence on threats emerging from the cybercrime underground, to support the prevention of digital crimes. Since 2020, 2easy has sold massive stealer logs with sensitive data like passwords, bank cards, and initial access credentials. It supports operations in multiple languages and operates on both clearnet and Tor. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here is a fast-access list of the top dark web sites for those ready to explore the hi…

Darknet market crypto crimes on the rise in 2023, $1.7B revenue — Chainalysis

Prices of hacked cryptocurrency accounts still remain overall the highest among all hacked online accounts. This indicates that hacking such accounts still remains extremely profitable. As in the previous 3 years, we conducted research into the supply and prices of various goods and services sold by cybercriminals on the dark web. The chart above shows that ASAP and Mega Darknet markets led the large retail and wholesale segments respectively. Looking closer at ASAP Market inflows, it won some share of revenue across all drug purchase types, receiving 37.1% of social supply, 35.7% of large retail, 16.5% of small retail, and 13.5% of wholesale purchases.

Data and methods

Its main inventory includes corporate credentials, system logs, RDP access points, and internal network data. These assets are often used as initial entry points for ransomware operations. Marketplaces are hosted on hidden services that conceal server locations and user identities. BidenCash and other exit-scam markets such as Torzon and Kingdom Market collapsed between 2022 and 2024.

The 10 Biggest Dark Web Markets in 2025 – Updated List & Security Insights

For instance, a factory employee can secretly slip away with one and sell it on the darknet markets. In this darkest corner of the internet, that gun becomes an illegal weapon. There’s no denying that the dark web is well-known for illegal activities. Besides, not everyone wants to purchase an illegal item – some want items anonymously. We understand the curiosity to venture into the dark web, but you also need to understand that it’s never safe to venture into this portion of the internet without fully understanding what it entails. This trend is backed up by the data, which shows a sharp decline in the number of transfers sent to darknet markets, but an increase in total revenue.

• This information is then processed to generate an index of average prices for a broad range of specific products.
• Hidden services can operate while keeping the physical location of the server hidden, which makes tracking and shutting them down considerably more challenging.
• The vendors aren’t required to register or apply for a vendor account while using this platform.
• Torzon market made its debut in September 2022, and ever since, it has been on an upward trajectory.
• The darknet markets keep on popping even when the authorities keep getting hard on them.

However, according to Chainalysis, the driving force of this revenue is a combination of increased competition and efforts by law enforcement to crack down on the markets themselves. According to Chainalysis’ 2025 Crypto Crime Report, darknet market (DNM) vendors are adapting their money laundering tactics. While centralized exchanges (CEXs) remain the dominant cash-out method, a notable shift has been toward decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The largest component of the S2S network of U2U transactions between sellers for each year with the respective number of nodes (N). The nodes are sellers that are active in that year, and an edge is placed between two sellers if at least one transaction occurs between them during that year. The network is mostly populated by U2U-only sellers, followed by market-only sellers.

• With 25,000+ users and 3,000+ vendors, it’s the gold standard for escrow security and scale.
• But no matter how polished or professional these sites seem, the risk of getting scammed — or tracked — is always high.
• Operating more like a legit e-commerce platform (surprisingly), the market operates a 14-day escrow system, but it lets you opt for Finalize Early (FE) if you trust a vendor.
• The analysed dataset includes about 31 million transactions among more than 16 million users.

Finally, we ran a small sample order on each to time escrow release and support response. All numbers are rounded; darknet telemetry is noisy and markets change weekly. Established in 2019, Russian Market is a well-known and highly regarded data store on the dark web, specializing in the sale of PII and various forms of stolen data. Despite its name, the marketplace operates primarily in English and serves a global audience. It has gained a reputation for being a reliable source of high-quality data for cybercriminals. 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.

In many places, including the U.S., the UK, and the EU, accessing the dark web is legal for legitimate purposes. However, many sites on the dark web host illegal content or activities, and engaging with those can lead to serious legal consequences. In some countries, like Russia or China, dark web access itself may be blocked or penalized. ProPublica is one of the safer Tor sites to visit, because it doesn’t link to illegal content or activities. Instead, it focuses on publishing stories and holding powerful institutions accountable. Other major news sources blocked in some countries, like the BBC, also have dark web versions.

According to Dark.fail, recently, the darknet marketplace’s head moderator “Se7en” sharply criticized the phishers, LE cooperators, and doxxers of the community, and this event could be a consequence of that. Abacus Market operated as a central deposit wallet, multisignature darknet marketplace supporting both Bitcoin and Monero cryptocurrencies. Abacus Market, the largest Bitcoin-enabled Western darknet marketplace, has likely executed an exit scam after going offline in early July 2025, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs. Even though DuckDuckGo is the Tor browser’s default search engine, it doesn’t index dark web websites, which means you won’t be able to find .onion sites with it. Riseup is a volunteer-run collective that offers secure chat and email services primarily used by progressive activists and social justice communities. It’s maintained by an independent organization committed to digital privacy and security.

Cloned Credit Cards and Cardholder Data

These platforms offer comprehensive guides, verified vendor lists, and up-to-date URLs, ensuring seamless access for users navigating this complex ecosystem. The evolution of darknet markets has been marked by significant advancements in technology and user experience, transforming them into sophisticated platforms for secure online trade. Over the years, these markets have adapted to the growing demand for privacy, anonymity, and efficiency, leveraging cutting-edge tools to ensure seamless transactions. DWM users display complex trading patterns within the marketplace environment. For example, users migrate to alternative DWMs when a DWM that they trade on closes12,13. Such migration of users is aided by communication via online forums and chats on the dark web14,15.

• It allows access to the .onion sites on the dark web that you won’t find using a regular browser.
• (c) Total monthly trading volume sent to all DWMs and exchanged in all unique U2U pairs.
• The dark web alert system is designed to urge you to take action before any significant harm is done.
• Over the years, these platforms have transformed into sophisticated ecosystems that cater to a wide range of products and services, with a particular emphasis on secure online trade.
• This has led to the emergence of specialized markets that focus on niche products, further diversifying the ecosystem.
• It said Russian-language darknet markets, which chiefly trade in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union, accounted for 80 percent of the global market.
• These types of scams more than doubled in revenue year-over-year, with data indicating a growth of 85x since 2020.

Nevertheless, most of the items in the darknet markets are illegal or heavily regulated. In fact, according to a study that was done in 2020, over 57% of the websites found on the Tor network contained illegal content. There are some things that you can’t find on the surface internet but are available in the darknet markets. Therefore, it’s almost impossible for authorities to track those who run the darknet markets or even their locations.

It issued a press release revealing that, from December 2021, the website will no longer be functional. DarkOde Reborn is a great darknet market where you can find anything you want. The website has a great design and a clean and organized interface that is easy to use. The homepage includes options like browsing products, searching, mixer, and coin exchange. However, the website has some security risks, and users experience glitches.

• In the first 24 hours of launching Check your hack, two million people took advantage of the service.
• The integration of blockchain technology and decentralized marketplaces has already begun to reshape the landscape, ensuring that transactions remain anonymous and resistant to external interference.
• One of the key factors driving this evolution is the adoption of Tor-based platforms, which provide a high level of anonymity and security.
• The arrest followed an extensive investigation by the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT), which tracked the platform’s operations across multiple jurisdictions.
• Trackers characterize it as a newer, security-centric platform emphasizing Monero-only transactions, hardened account controls, and a “PGP + escrow + multisig-encouraged” model aligned with more privacy-oriented DNMs.
• According to Chainalysis’ 2025 Crypto Crime Report, darknet market (DNM) vendors are adapting their money laundering tactics.
• Dark markets, on the other hand, are platforms within darknets where illicit transactions occur.

In 2024, DeFi played an increasing role in storing, transferring, and obfuscating illicit crypto proceeds. Fifth, we consider the lifetime of each entity i at time t, defined as the time interval between the first and the last transaction performed by the entity until time t, denoted by \(\ell _i(t)\). This feature is satisfied when \(\ell _i(t) \ge L\), where L is the fixed value of minimum lifetime. Some, such as Julia Finess, have become popular and also made a name for themselves on TikTok.

You’ll get stolen credit cards, remote desktop account info, personal details, and various logs. What makes this market popular is the fact that it’s less expensive compared to the rest. The market started in 2021 in Canada and features both international and Canadian users.

Days later RuTor was targeted for another round of cyber attacks, this time by Killnet. Amid the cyber warfare between those vying to succeed Hydra, Russia’s drug trade, most of it orchestrated via darknet marketplaces continues almost in plain sight. 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. Dark markets often employ end-to-end encryption for communication between buyers and sellers, enhancing security and privacy. This encryption ensures that messages cannot be intercepted and read by third parties, including law enforcement. The use of digital signatures can also help verify the authenticity of users and transactions.

Abacus alone represented nearly 5 per cent of total DNM revenue, underscoring the ongoing scale of underground commerce. Dark web markets work much like regular e-commerce websites but with extra layers of anonymity and encryption. Buyers browse listings, place orders, and pay with cryptocurrency — typically Bitcoin or Monero — to obscure transaction trails. In this article, we’ll explore what dark web markets are, how they work, and why they’re so risky. We’ll also discuss examples of major marketplaces, myths about the dark web, and tips on staying safe in case your personal data ever ends up there. 2022 and early 2023 saw the seizure of many major darknet markets by law enforcement.

At the time, it had over 600,000 users, 17,000 listings, and approximately €250 million in transactions. Authorities seized €7.8 million and arrested operators in Germany, Spain, Sweden, Romania, the Netherlands, and the US Europol leads takedown of Archetyp. These listings often include detailed descriptions, user reviews, and even shipping guarantees. One of the most common types of illicit goods is stolen login credentials, often collected from data breaches. These “credential dumps” allow criminals to access online accounts, steal identities, and commit fraud.

They used “free data dumps” and emotional marketing to build trust before vanishing—an enduring lesson in the risks of social engineering. Russian Market has operated since 2019, specialising in stolen credentials, stealer logs, and remote desktop access. Threat reports consistently rank it among the top ten darknet sites Top 10 Dark Web Markets. The dark web hosts a variety of illegal activities, many of which fuel cybercrime and real-world harm. Miklos founded Privacy Affairs in 2018 to provide cybersecurity and data privacy education to regular audiences by translating tech-heavy and “geeky” topics into easy-to-understand guides and tutorials.

Nevertheless, as for Empire Market itself; Hackread.com will keep an eye on the situation and update the article accordingly even if it is an exit scam. It offers numerous categories of products, most of which feature illegal products. Just like Alpha Bay, Drugs and Chemicals is one of the most popular product categories in the Empire Market. Dark.fail tweeted on Friday that Empire was targeted with a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack. In a DDoS attack, the server is bombarded with artificial traffic, which makes it difficult for the server to process web requests, and it ultimately goes down. Despite these explanations, the darknet community remained skeptical, leading to a dramatic 94% decline in deposit volumes.