Also, when acquiring bitcoin make sure to use a non-KYC (know-your-customer) exchange. CoinJoins of all sorts, stealth address solutions like silent payments and BIP47, and encouraging users to run their own node and use non-custodial and open-source software where they can. Arguably, the reasons above are why Lightning is not currently integrated into any darknet market. There’s also a concern with the complications that come with running a Lightning node as a merchant. In what concerns user deposits, TRM Labs reports that the platform received last month an average of $230,000 per day, across 1,400 transactions.
Then, we reveal a concentration of activity around an elite group of participants, where a large fraction of the trading volume is driven by a small number of players. We find that trading properties of buyers and sellers reflect the dominance of DWMs in the ecosystem. In particular, we analyse networks of ‘multihomers’, defined as users that are simultaneously trading in multiple markets. We show that these users play a crucial role in the connectivity of the ecosystem because they act as connectors between markets. Analogously, we identify and characterise ‘multisellers’ (i.e., multihomers that are sellers) and ‘multibuyers’ (i.e., multihomers that are buyers). Furthermore, we analyse the seller-to-seller (S2S) network, i.e., the network composed only of transactions among sellers, which can be regarded as a supply chain network of illicit goods and services.
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Privacy-focused operators are shifting to Monero due to its default anonymity, compared to Bitcoin’s transparent ledger Darknet markets see BTC inflow drop to $2B. Darknet marketplaces remain central to illicit trade in 2025, with evolving business models, payment systems, and law enforcement responses. This survey highlights active and recently shuttered markets with actionable metrics and intelligence for threat hunters, CISOs, and red team leaders. Despite the renewed reliance on Bitcoin, illicit transactions remain a small fraction of overall cryptocurrency activity. According to Chainalysis data, only 0.14% of total crypto transactions—equivalent to approximately $50 billion—are linked to illegal activities.
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Finally, the data is purchased by consumers who use it to commit various forms of fraud, including fraudulent credit card transactions, identity theft, and phishing attacks. It is common to hear news reports about large data breaches, but what happens once your personal data is stolen? Our research shows that, like most legal commodities, stolen data products flow through a supply chain consisting of producers, wholesalers, and consumers. But this supply chain involves the interconnection of multiple criminal organizations operating in illicit underground marketplaces. Individuals began using the darknet to pseudonymously sell illegal content without face-to-face interaction. Over time, ambitious individuals created infrastructure for these transactions, where for a fee, sellers have access to a digital ‘storefront’ to sell their products in a centralized marketplace.
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The website has an interface and design similar to other dark web shops. It uses PGP encryption, two-factor authentication, and OPTP authentication to ensure users’ security. The vendors aren’t required to register or apply for a vendor account while using this platform. It ensures the buyer’s identity is kept hidden and accepts payments through cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Monero.
The 17 Best Dark Web Marketplaces In 2025
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reports that Abacus shutting down so abruptly has all the indications of either an exit scam or a covert law enforcement operation dismantling the activity. Despite these advancements, criminals continuously adapt, utilizing privacy coins and decentralized networks to evade detection. Challenges like cross-border enforcement and privacy concerns complicate regulation.
Activities on dark-web marketplaces are closely monitored by international law enforcement agencies. Purchasing or selling illegal goods—such as controlled substances, counterfeit documents, or stolen data—can result in significant legal penalties, including fines, criminal charges, and imprisonment. Even users who access these platforms without intent to buy illegal items risk suspicion or investigation.
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- Symbolising the “dark side” of cryptocurrency, the site used Bitcoin as a means of payment.
- While it might be tempting, remember that downloading such content has serious legal and cybersecurity risks.
- Like other marketplaces, ASAP Market also requires you to register for an account.
- Vendor reputations are transparent, with detailed feedback systems ensuring product quality matches descriptions.
- The evolving activity-driven model is an appropriate methodology for large temporal networks32 and it is implemented in the Python 3 pip library TemporalBackbone45, where default parameter values have been used.
Some customers even use the dark web to make anonymous purchases, especially in areas where privacy is a huge concern. It brings in vendor reviews from other places and verifies them using PGP signatures, so buyers can feel a bit more confident about who they’re dealing with. There’s also a premium account option for users who want extra benefits. And when it comes to paying, the site sticks to Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) to keep transactions private. The largest component of the S2S network of U2U transactions between sellers for each year with the respective number of nodes (N).
The Top 7 Dark Web Marketplaces In 2025
The market claims to provide secure and anonymous commerce services. You can find a lot of goods and services packed with stealth high-level encryption, no JavaScript, and anti-DDoS protection. The dark web itself is not illegal, but it’s largely connected with unscrupulous and illegal operations. It is used by many for buying or selling items that are prohibited on the regular internet, like fake IDs, illegal drugs, and stolen data. We classify all entities either as sellers or buyers as a function of time. The result is a time series of lists of sellers and buyers for each period and for each market and the U2U network.
This multi-role classification, to be implemented in future work, can help gain a more nuanced understanding of the ecosystem and the structure of the dark web supply chains. We showed that a small fraction of traders is responsible for a large fraction of the trading volume, and by analysing the networks of buyers and sellers, we found different resilience regimes. Shocks tend to induce serious structural changes in the multiseller network, but impact the multibuyer network much less severely. Interestingly, the S2S network shows an intermediate level of resilience, which suggests that the S2S network might play the role of a supply chain network on the dark web. Furthermore, after a shock, the activity of buyers is resumed almost immediately, while the activity of sellers recovers more slowly.
The shift toward decentralized markets in 2025 further reduces single points of failure, making transactions more resilient. Onion routing masks IP addresses, making it nearly impossible to link purchases to real-world identities. Markets now integrate self-destructing listings and time-locked payments, further minimizing exposure.
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This was reflected in the sharp decline in deposit volumes to Abacus between June and July, 2025. Between June 1 and June 27, 2025 average daily deposits to Abacus were USD 230,000 across 1,400 transactions. However, from June 28 to July 10, 2025, this dropped to USD 13,000 across just 100 deposits. However, the dark web is so complex and vast that if law enforcement takes down one market, it pops up elsewhere. For instance, after the closure of Genesis Market, its website came back after a few weeks.
