The two charts below show which markets Hydra’s previous counterparties used the most in both of those two time periods. As we’ll explore later, the three next-highest earning markets of the year — Mega Darknet Market, Blacksprut Market, and OMG! Bohemia is a cutting-edge marketplace designed to take a more modern approach of the traditional dark-net market.
The market is known for its large selection of products, including drugs, digital goods, and services. White House Market is a relatively new darknet market that has gained popularity due to its user-friendly interface and strong security measures. The darknet market scene is constantly changing, with new markets popping up and old ones disappearing. Before law enforcement agencies shut down Hydra, it was the largest darknet market in the world. The ease of access and anonymity provided by cryptocurrencies fuel the growth of these markets, making it a challenge to curb illegal transactions.
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Dread’s administrator, Hugbunter — who was in close contact with the Abacus team — believes Abacus’s disappearance was not the result of a law enforcement action. This signals a growing preference among darknet operators for obfuscation and anti-surveillance tools. Although it served a global audience, it particularly focused on the Australian market, incorporating Australian cultural references into its marketing and recruiting an Australia-dedicated moderator. The lack of a single dominant market could make disruption more challenging for law enforcement, as there is no longer one big target to focus on.
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As it’s inaccessible via the surface web, users require a software known as The Onion Router (or TOR) to get to the darknet. According to TRM Labs’s research, these markets reached 24% more volume than the previous year of Hydra within the first five months of Hydra’s shutdown. Manual monitoring of the dark web is inefficient and risky due to the sheer volume of data involved. Its impressive anti-DDoS protection feature and easy-to-use interface make this marketplace stand out among the others. The information about a specific cryptocurrency exchange or trading platform in reviews and guides may differ from the actual provider’s website. The increased use of the dark web is also a boon to cyber extortionists, who feed off traffic to their data leak portals and work to build relationships with the mainstream media.
- As we highlighted in our 2024 mid-year crypto crime update, Huione and all vendors operating on their platform have processed more than $70 billion in crypto transactions since 2021.
- Like hacker forums, critical data such as VIP credentials, employee data, and espionage information are sold in dark web markets as well.
- People increase the value of the stolen data by aggregating it with publicly available data, and sell it again for a profit, increasing the damage that can be done to the people whose data was stolen.
- These darknet markets are difficult to disrupt directly, but efforts to thwart customers of stolen data from using it offers some hope.
- TRM Labs said users typically migrate to the nearest available platform when a dark market collapses, especially when it’s a “large and reputable market.”
- The dark web has gained a reputation as a marketplace for illegal goods and services.
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This marked a major recovery from the downturn seen in 2022 after the shutdown of Hydra, the then-largest darknet marketplace. “Over the years some markets … developed a robust catalog of illicit services like money laundering, fiat offramping, and products that enable cyber-criminal activities like ransomware and malware attacks. Fraud shops are vendors that typically operate on the dark web and facilitate the sale of stolen data and personally identifiable information (PII), which cybercriminals abuse in illicit activities like scamming, identity theft, and ransomware. When looking at darknet drug markets serving Russia-based customers, Kraken Market captured 30.9% of market share, with Blacksprut and Mega Darknet markets closely following. Mega Darknet Market is the dominant drug supply source for drug vendors on other darknet sites, holding a 63.4% share of that market.
TRM Labs said there is also a chance that law enforcement covertly seized the marketplace and are staying quiet about the operation while they compile evidence and track down those involved. Abacus offered a wide range of illicit drugs, including stimulants, psychedelics, unlicensed pharmaceuticals, and operated a central deposit wallet that supported both Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). The Russian Market has been around since 2019 and is one of the more prominent dark web marketplaces. It allows vendors to sell without registration, which provides an added layer of anonymity, making it one of the more flexible and user-friendly markets on the dark web. With enhanced security features and a strong focus on financial fraud, STYX has become a go-to marketplace for those looking to engage in cybercrime on a more technical level It offers a wide range of illicit goods, including illegal drugs, counterfeit items, fake IDs, passports, and software keys.
- A number of studies suggest that markets such as Silk Road may have helped users reduce the harm caused by illicit drug use, particularly compared with street-based drug marketplaces.
- In a fourth example, a San Fernando Valley man, Brian McDonald, 23, was sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison in the Central District of California for using darknet marketplaces to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of fentanyl-laced pills and cocaine to buyers nationwide.
- Monopoly Market also has a strict policy against listing certain types of goods and services, such as weapons and child pornography.
- By giving malicious actors direct access to sensitive records, these data-focused marketplaces significantly expand the scope and impact of identity-based crimes.
- The majority of the marketplaces are in English, but some have opened in Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian.
- Silk Road, one of the earliest and most infamous darknet markets, revolutionized the concept of online black markets.
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Torzon Market has established itself as a significant player in the darknet ecosystem, offering a secure, user-centric platform for anonymous trading. Torzon is one of the most notable dark web stores for a number of reasons. The platform’s activity has increased significantly over the past year, indicating its growing influence and market share in the underground economy. It has gained a reputation for being a reliable source of high-quality data for cybercriminals. Due to its extensive inventory and reputation for reliability, Brian’s Club has maintained a significant presence on the dark web.
While no single market has matched Hydra’s success, total darknet market revenue rose to $1.7 billion in 2023. A new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis sheds light on how these underground markets rebounded financially last year, even as law enforcement continued efforts to investigate and shut them down. According to research from various security sources, a number of markets reared their heads as key players after Hydra’s shut down, each taking it in turn to lead the market.
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Darknet markets, in particular, have gained attention for their role in facilitating the exchange of illicit goods and services. Monitoring active marketplaces offers early access to malware kits, credential dumps, and fraud tools. Nonetheless, despite these ecosystem-wide trends, some forms of crypto crime, such as ransomware and darknet market (DNM) sales, remain BTC-dominated. As we initially shared in our mid-year crypto crime update, another important update this year is that we’ve begun to factor suspected illicit activity into our total estimates for certain crime types, based on Signals data. Much of that growth came from various types of illicit actor organizations, such as vendors operating through Huione, which provide on-chain infrastructure and laundering services for high-risk and illicit actors. In particular, we have seen the emergence of large-scale on-chain services that provide infrastructure for numerous types of illicit actors to help them launder their ill-gotten crypto.
While not based in Australia, Abacus Market gained strong traction with local darknet users by embracing cultural references, supporting Australian vendors, and featuring a dedicated moderator from the region. Abacus Market — once the largest Bitcoin-enabled Western darknet marketplace — went offline in early July 2025. Such companies’ tools enable investigators to trace administrator wallets and follow illicit flows even after a marketplace goes offline. The marketplace’s administrator, known as ‘Vito’, responded on darkweb discussion forum Dread, claiming an influx of Archetyp users and a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack were the reasons for the issues.
Did Abacus’s Success Lead To Its Closure?
Major drug markets in the Dark Web are now worth around $315 million annually according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). But it may also keep the overall darknet market ecosystem smaller than the Hydra era, as no single player can match its scale and network effects. According to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, the sudden disappearance aligns with common patterns seen in exit scams, where marketplace operators disappear with funds held in escrow. It appears that customers’ general trust in such marketplaces has decreased due to recent disruption but, with limited alternatives of doing business with illegal products in a more secure way, it’s unlikely we’ll see sales on dark web marketplaces cease anytime soon. Nowadays, the forum is aimed at database leakers, malware developers, and drug users.
Furthermore, some criminal networks are resorting to crypto to facilitate polycrime, or multiple crime types. Ransomware has continued to see revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but a number of large, multilateral law enforcement disruptions coupled with decreased victim appetite to pay ransoms have made a dent in the ecosystem. We have also observed the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fraud and scams space, such as in highly personalized sextortion attacks.
What Is Hydra Marketplace?
Despite its name, the marketplace operates primarily in English and serves a global audience. 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. It has built a reputation for being a reliable source of stolen credit card data and PII. Its focus on financial fraud and high-value transactions has attracted a dedicated user base, contributing to its growing reputation and market value. Abacus Market quickly rose to prominence by attracting former AlphaBay users and providing a comprehensive platform for a wide range of illicit activities.
This deep web encompasses everything not indexed by search engines, including private databases, paywalled content, and, yes, the dark web. The market has 22% and 17% of the market share, respectively. According to Statista, the following are the highest mean daily numbers of Tor network users with direct connections between June and September 2023. Cryptocurrency-based drug sales grew by more than 19 percent between 2023 and 2024, approaching USD 2.4 billion.
