Interestingly, this vendor has also been a trusted supplier for OFAC-designated fentanyl traffickers Alex Adrianus Martinus Peijnenburg and Matthew Simon Grimm, having received close to $1.5 million in purchases from them. On Abacus Market, the US, Canada, Germany, Australia, and the UK have the highest number of listings. In the US, there’s a large diversity in the types of products sold, including counterfeit pills. For example, in the screenshot below, an American vendor lists protonitazene powder, and advertises its uses as a counterfeit for oxycodone, also referred to as “M30” (i.e. 30 mg).
Ethereum Rebound Outperforms Market Amid Strongest Performance Since 2021
We recommend using NordVPN as it offers top-notch security features, including dark web threat protection. As these marketplaces keep changing, it is critical to stay on top of the main platforms on the dark web worth monitoring. Monitoring dark web markets is crucial, no matter if you are a business or individual, as you can then proactively identify and mitigate potential breaches and cyber threats.
Decrypting The Cryptomarkets: Trends Over A Decade Of The Dark Web Drug Trade
Diving deeper, several RuTor posts and other available sources for our analysts suggest the Khimprom Syndicate, an international drug mafia notorious for slicing off the fingers of “disobedient” members, covertly operate the forum. But in 2019, media reported the cartel was managing their business from remote locales in Latin America and some of their key actors have been arrested by law enforcement. According to a popular DNM news aggregator, the trouble started when RuTor and OMG! “created a coalition to monopolize the market,” offering a bonus fee as high as 10% to vendors if they relocated their illicit shops there. For each entity, we keep track of the cumulative values of the six features for each transaction performed by the entity over time.
Since 2021, Abacus Market’s revenue has increased substantially, and in 2024, it more than doubled, growing by 183.2% YoY. This increase may be due in part to the closures of top DNMs, the shift to the exclusive acceptance of XMR by other active markets, and delistings of XMR by popular centralized exchanges. The below graph shows an increase in Abacus sales (in BTC) following the closure of ASAP Market in July 2023, and a further increase following some CEXs delisting XMR. While Mega’s inflows declined by more than 50% year-over-year (YoY), Kraken DNM’s rose nearly 68% YoY. Kraken DNM, which billed itself as Hydra’s Market’s successor, received $737 million on-chain in 2024.
Industry-Specific Cyber Threat Intelligence Powered By Agentic AI
As darknet markets grow more fragmented and boutique, traditional law enforcement methods are becoming increasingly ineffective. The shift toward specialized platforms with heightened security measures makes tracking illicit activity even more challenging, requiring innovative approaches and advanced tools. CACI’s DarkBlue Intelligence Suite is designed to address these exact challenges, offering comprehensive monitoring and analysis of the dark web’s most secure and decentralized spaces. With AI-enhanced threat detection, real-time dark web access through DarkPursuit, and detailed insights into evolving criminal networks, DarkBlue provides the intelligence needed to stay one step ahead in this rapidly changing environment. As large platforms face disruption from law enforcement action, dark web infighting, and an influx of users from Telegram, there’s a growing shift toward smaller, more specialized marketplaces. These new niche sites are focused on specific illicit goods, offering enhanced security and a more targeted environment for buyers and sellers.
Darknet Market And Online Pharmacy Inflows According To Drug-purchasing Behaviors
This incident also marked the never-before-seen attempt of its administrator, Pharoah (arrested in May 2024 and revealed to be 23 year-old Taiwanese national Rui-Siang Lin), to extort the marketplace’s users. The AFM emphasized that combating money laundering through digital currencies remains a top priority. Earlier, authorities announced plans to establish a digital asset fund in Kazakhstan, further strengthening regulatory oversight. With these stolen credentials, the suspects purchased ghost gun parts and tools from a variety of legitimate websites, which they used to build ghost guns with a 3D printer, and sell for cash. A Manhattan district attorney successfully used this evidence to bring charges against one of the suspects.
US Treasury Sanctions Iranian National For Operating Darknet Market Nemesis
Most of the money went to law enforcement agencies in Ohio, Illinois and Florida, but $1.5 million was earmarked for taxes and another $111,000 was split among 10 scam victims, court records show. The DEA says “virtual currency continues to be a popular and growing method used to launder illicit proceeds derived from drug sales.” The agency points to the large number of crypto ATMs in Chicago and warns of the cash-washing efforts by drug cartels. Kevin Fusco, 37, was sentenced in 2017 to three years in prison for drug conspiracy and money laundering, court records show. He apologized to the judge, acknowledging his role in the nascent ATM drug trade. Most recently, Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, were indicted in California for fentanyl trafficking amid reports linking their Sinaloa Cartel faction to crypto-based laundering through Chinese brokers. A global law enforcement operation has resulted in the seizure of $200 million in cash and digital assets and the arrest of 270 individuals across 10 countries, the U.S.
Harrods Reveals Supply Chain Breach Impacting Online Customers
- Around November 2022 the Administrator of WayWay started a new thread about the planned launch for a new marketplace called Kraken.
- This paper aims to identify the key players in Bitcoin transaction networks linked to dark markets and assess their role by analysing a dataset of 40 million Bitcoin transactions involving the 31 major markets in the period 2011–2021.
- Other than the Silk Road 2.0, similar marketplaces also emerged, but they all went down sooner or later.
- The company, which operated thousands of ATMs across the country, also agreed to pay $78,000 to scam victims in Connecticut and cease operations in that state, according to the Connecticut Department of Banking.
- However, they have so far mainly focused on DWM users, without distinguishing between buyers and sellers, and neglecting the different weight that more active users may have in the system.
Nevertheless, due to their unregulated nature, DWMs exhibit behaviours not observed in regulated marketplaces. They offer anonymity to their users by using and developing specialized tools. DWMs are accessed through darknet browsers supporting the onion routing protocol (e.g., Tor), which provides anonymous communication connections35. Additionally, transactions are made with cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin, which also provide anonymity to the transaction parties6,36. While the Bitcoin blockchain is publicly available on Bitcoin core37 or other third-party APIs such as Blockchain.com38, a market or a user can generate a new address for each transaction.
The use of cryptocurrency in vendor shop drug sales saw a significant surge over the past year. TRM Labs is the only blockchain intelligence provider with a specialist category unique to individual drug vendors — and this year, we saw incoming volumes sent to illicit vendor shops more than double. Prior to its takedown by law enforcement, narcotics traffickers and cybercriminals openly traded in illegal drugs and services on Nemesis, which was designed with built-in money laundering features. Nemesis had over 30,000 active users and 1,000 vendors and facilitated the sale of nearly $30 million worth of drugs around the world between 2021 and 2024, including to the United States. Today’s sanctions designation is OFAC’s first action as a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-led interagency Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) Team. Here, we set out to find the main actors in the DWM ecosystem and assess their systemic impact on a dataset of 40 million Bitcoin transactions involving the 31 major markets in the period 2011–2021.
The progress made in disrupting illicit networks demonstrates the impact of collective action, but sustained vigilance and adaptability — empowered by cutting-edge blockchain analytics — will be essential to securing the crypto ecosystem in the years ahead. While the darknet market ecosystem showed signs of recovery in 2023, it has yet to return to the revenues it experienced before the Hydra Marketplace closure in 2022, given the financial success of that operation. It’s noteworthy that, despite some unusual marketing efforts, no other darknet market has since assumed Hydra’s mantle of being the one-stop-shop for illicit products and services. Though the sanctioning and closure of fraud shop Genesis Market occurred last year, there were no other sanction events for the darknet market ecosystem, or major market takedowns.
The Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report
Ransomware actors and fraudsters are leveraging technological advancements, including cross-chain bridges and artificial intelligence, to bypass detection and scale their operations. Incoming crypto volumes to Chinese drug precursor manufacturers have seen a significant decline, from USD 27.6 million in 2023 to USD 17.0 million in 2024. This drop may be driven in part by stronger actions from the Chinese government following the Biden-Xi summit of November 2023. The summit resulted in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banning a range of fentanyl precursors and shutting down some suppliers, followed by a further ban of several nitazenes and analogs in July 2024.
- Vendors on Hydra also offered services such as “Hacking for Hire,” “Ransomware as a Service” (“RaaS”), and a myriad of money laundering features.
- Moreover, the number of multibuyers increases, which suggests a fast response from buyers to external shocks by trying to diversify their sources.
- Its user base is primarily English-speaking, and it appeals to more sophisticated cybercriminals.
- Others, particularly those based in Russia, focus solely on info stealer hacking tools and brokering stolen data.
How To Gain Safe Access To The Dark Web Marketplaces
However, the gains simply weren’t enough to make up for the massive decline in revenue overall. Average daily revenues for these digital drug marketplaces fell from $4.2 million to $447,000 in the immediate aftermath of Hydra’s collapse. Throughout this year, multiple law enforcement efforts have been made to shut down dark web crypto marketplaces. In June, the DOJ and Europol collaborated to shut down one of the largest Monero-based darknet markets. Incognito Market is a platform where users can buy over 1,000 types of illegal drugs anonymously and, according to reports, has facilitated more than $100 million in transactions.
