AlphaBay operated as a hidden service on the “Tor” network, and utilized cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Monero and Ethereum in order to hide the locations of its underlying servers and the identities of its administrators, moderators, and users. Based on law enforcement’s investigation of AlphaBay, authorities believe the site was also used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars deriving from illegal transactions on the website. 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.
Alphabay Market
There are no new threads mentioning AlphaBay’s return on The Hub. The service on Tor appears to be hosted alongside Dread services and features both the Dread waiting queue and clock-captcha for DDoS protection. The marketplace was offline last week, when Dread and its sister services were under heavy DDoS and inaccessible.
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For instance, cybercriminals can buy credit card details with a $5,000 balance for just $110. Today’s cybercriminals spread their activities across multiple platforms, making them harder to track and shut down. “This is a warning you will want to heed,” the user, who goes by luckyduckquack, posted. “They are waiting to gather as many refugees from AB & Hansa as they can and then drop the hammer.” Dream Market seemed to be the next move for dark web vendors, but some question how reliable it is. Users on the dark web will need to find a new marketplace after AlphaBay was shut down.
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It’s not replacing markets yet, but it’s a side hustle worth watching. 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.
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In 2024, the platform grew significantly in popularity, partly because of its strategic acquisition of users from a number of recently shut-down marketplaces, such as AlphaBay and Incognito Market, which had recently closed their doors. N 2025, dark web websites frequently change domains and are often short-lived. Accessing them may require .onion links and the Tor browser, but caution is advised due to legality and cybersecurity risks. Apart from the dark web markets that are operating online today, some raided platforms influenced many markets. “For now, there are plenty of smaller and more specialized markets for vendors and buyers to continue trading,” Wilson said. Other marketplaces, like Tochka and Valhalla, could also rise in the vacuum AlphaBay and Hansa have left.
“It’s fake and 99.9% sure and feds opening it again,” another wrote. Of course, everything DeSnake told WIRED may itself be misdirection designed to help him further evade those agencies. DeSnake says his security practices—both the ones he’s applying within AlphaBay and on a personal level—go far beyond those of his predecessor, Cazes, who went by the online handle Alpha02. Cazes was caught, in part, through Bitcoin blockchain analysis that confirmed his role as AlphaBay’s boss, a trick that would be far more difficult, if not impossible, with Monero. DeSnake argues that new safeguards like these will make AlphaBay that much harder to remove from the dark web this time around. “I had given Cazes many ‘holy grails’ of anonimity, but he chose to use only certain things while he branded other methods/ways as ‘overkill,’” DeSnake writes, in his seemingly foreign-inflected and occasionally misspelled English.
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Cazes was later found hanging in a Bangkok jail cell in an apparent suicide. The new AlphaBay market’s Tor service has been unstable since its launch, with frequent 503 errors, user registration issues, and login timeouts. After almost two months of operation, the market has a handful of vendors, with only a couple of hundred listings across drugs and fraud goods. DeSnake claims there have been 15,000 user accounts created, 450 vendors registered, and over 400 listings published as of the time of writing.
Paying With Monero: A Quick Rundown
Upon his initial arrest, reports suggested he faced up to 20 years for his involvement in the marketplace. The authorities were not the only ones to identify and/or attempt to uncover the key players (aka staff) at AlphaBay Market. In the spring of 2017, the Alpha Organization paid an extortionist threatening to dox alpha02 and a couple of his moderators at least $45,000 USD, although the veracity of the information the extortionist had has not been verified. When authorities carried out the warrant and arrest in his apartment in Bangkok, his laptop was left unencrypted and the admin account for the market and server logged in. Authorities also simultaneously executed search warrants for the market’s server hardware located in Quebec, Canada. Complete the captcha to get your Alphabay Link, this is a Anti-DDoS measure.
Abacus Market
- A user who speculated Hansa had been compromised in a thread posted 10 days before the Department of Justice announced the bust returned on Thursday to warn that Dream Market will suffer the same fate.
- Tor2door’s a standout since 2020 with 20,000+ listings and a custom design that’s not off-the-shelf junk.
- DeSnake argues that new safeguards like these will make AlphaBay that much harder to remove from the dark web this time around.
- The link I used started with g and did not have alphabay anywhere in it.
- DeSnake claims there have been 15,000 user accounts created, 450 vendors registered, and over 400 listings published as of the time of writing.
Some markets are invite-only or have strict registration rules to keep out scammers and law enforcement. These sites cater to cybercriminals seeking valuable data, such as credit card numbers, login credentials, and personal information. The second category consists of data stores, which specialize in stolen information. It’ll be quiet on the dark web until people can find a reliable marketplace again, but eventually they will, said Emily Wilson, the director of analysis at Terbium Labs. Security company McAfee found that the upstart dark market House of Lions was offering vendors from AlphaBay a discount if they moved to their platform. Rowley noticed chatter on forums and subreddits pointing to Dream Market as the next AlphaBay, but people are wary after the Dutch police ploy.
For a long period of time, most AlphaBay users speculated that the market’s admins pulled off an “exit scam,” a term used to describe when a Dark Web market shuts down and the owners steal all the cryptocurrency from escrow wallets. In July 2017, police in the US and Europe, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Europol and the Dutch National Police, partnered to take down the site. AlphaBay’s servers were seized with the help of authorities in Thailand, Lithuania, Canada, the United Kingdom and France. The operation included the arrest of suspected AlphaBay founder Alexandre Cazes on 5 July, detained on behalf of the US in Thailand.
Abacus is a beast in 2025—over 40,000 listings and still growing. You can find everything from weed to fake cash to hacking gear, and it’s got a solid rep with a $15 million valuation floating around forums. They take Bitcoin and Monero, and their multi-signature escrow system keeps deals safe. What I like is their no-fentanyl rule—shows they’re trying to keep things less messy.
You will find easy access to things that could get you in trouble with your authorities and are downright terrible for your health. However, You are owner of your life and it’s your job to judge what is good and bad for you. The official .onion link is not even saying that the server can’t be reached but that the .onion is not found. Established in 2022, WizardShop is one of the biggest data stores on the dark web, focusing mainly on carding and financial data. STYX Market focuses specifically on financial fraud, making it a go-to destination for cybercriminals engaged in this activity. Cybersecurity experts should pay close attention to these trends, as they often indicate emerging threats and profit-generating tactics among the cybercriminal forums.
