Revenues for the fraud shops on the right side of the chart declined, suggesting their dependence on UAPS for payment infrastructure. Some countries have just one or a few vendors with a loyal customer base and a wider selection of goods. For example, in India, one of the most frequent listings is for generic medication, which mostly comes from the first vendor shown below.
Google SEO Statistics 2025: Trends, Stats, And Predictions
However, the rapid evolution of these marketplaces continues to outpace many of these initiatives. Dark web operators use mainstream social media platforms to promote illicit goods. Advertisements for fake passports, stolen credit card dumps, and malware appear in private groups, often disguised with coded language.
Implications For Security Leaders
This particular market is modeled on the late Alphabay Market that was seized and shut down in the middle of 2017. So far, the replacement has been successful, making this one of the most popular and used marketplaces to date. There’s literally everything on here, and you can find anything from illegal, and legal, drugs, to concert tickets for your favorite band, it’s really quite the digital plaza. Another aptly named Darknet marketplace, but this time nothing to do with the Nasdaq or Stock Exchange. With over 9,500 currently listings, over 4,600 of these seem to be related to drugs. However, anybody can sign up and start selling whatever they want on the website as they please.
Dark Web Marketplaces & Illicit Goods
Therefore, for security reasons, disable JavaScript on the Tor browser and enjoy an anonymous browsing experience on the dark net. Despite using a VPN, there’s always a risk of the VPN leaking your IP address through DNS or WebRTC leaks or misconfigurations when on a dark web forum or marketplace. Therefore, you must run an IP leak test to ensure that the VPN is working completely fine and is not risking your digital security.
Abacus Market Disappears In Suspected Exit Scam After Handling $300 Million In Darknet Transactions
They used “free data dumps” and emotional marketing to build trust before vanishing—an enduring lesson in the risks of social engineering. BriansClub remains a long-standing credit card data shop since at least 2014. Despite a 2019 breach that exposed over 26 million credit cards, it continues to operate, indicating sustained trust in its data pipelines.
Is The Dark Web Still Active In 2024?
Based on a report by Intelliagg, the following types are found on the Dark Web. 85% of top markets now use escrow security, up from 60% in 2023—see Alphabay. The first major darknet market pioneered BTC trading, processing $1.2 billion before its 2013 shutdown. And beware—while many explore out of curiosity or for research purposes, it’s important to remember that engaging with these platforms, even as an observer, can lead to serious legal and ethical consequences.
Trends Shaping Dark Web Activity In 2025
- The site gives out free samples of the stolen data every now and then to gain more customers.
- One of the things STYX is infamous for is having a rigorous verification process for users that makes it seem more exclusive.
- Supporting BTC (60%) and XMR (40%), Torrez’s interface offers advanced filters and fast trades—90% complete within minutes—keeping prices 5–10% below premium markets.
- TRM Labs assesses the event was likely an exit scam, though a covert law enforcement seizure cannot be ruled out.
Between January 2019 and September 2023, the majority of those queries came from underdeveloped countries with well-documented instances of internet censorship. Pakistan topped the list with 100 index points (maximum), followed by Kenya (89 points) and Myanmar (87 points). The top 10 also included Bangladesh (78), Ethiopia (75), Nepal (75), Cameroon (67), Tanzania (66), Nigeria (65), and Sri Lanka (63 index points). The aforementioned Tor browser has established itself as the go-to browser for accessing the Dark Web.
Response times average 12 hours, with a 92% shipping reliability rate—disputes occur in 3% of transactions, resolved in 48 hours for 87% of cases, backed by a 93% escrow success rate. Vendors like “DoorMed” and “TechBit” maintain 96% ratings, supporting its speed-focused approach, though its vendor pool trails Torrez’s scale. ASAP’s 1,000+ vendors support its 25,000+ listings, rated 4.5/5 across 35,000+ reviews, with drugs (60%), digital goods (20%), and fraud tools (15%) leading its catalog. Response times average 14 hours, with a 93% shipping reliability rate—disputes occur in 2% of transactions, resolved in 36 hours for 90% of cases, backed by a 94% escrow success rate. Vendors like “CryptoTrader” and “FastMed” offer 97% reliability, leveraging ASAP’s multi-crypto support (BTC, XMR, LTC, USDT), though its vendor pool is smaller than Torrez’s, limiting scale. This section pits our ranked markets against each other across key metrics—trade volume, listing counts, vendor networks, escrow reliability, cryptocurrency support, uptime, and user experience—as of February 27, 2025.
Mobile applications and hidden marketplaces within messaging platforms—beyond just Telegram—are proliferating. These channels make it increasingly difficult for authorities to trace conversations and transactions, as they are often scattered across multiple, encrypted ecosystems. The darknet is a dynamic environment, continually adapting to law enforcement pressure and evolving user demands. As more marketplaces emerge and established platforms seek new ways to conceal their operations, several trends are likely to shape the future of this clandestine economy. This article sets out to illustrate how the leading Dark Web marketplaces are structured in the years 2024–2025. By delving into their core offerings—ranging from illegal narcotics to sophisticated hacking tools—we can gain a clearer perspective on the criminal ecosystem that fuels a substantial portion of online illicit trade.
- The Torrez market is one of the biggest dark net marketplaces, also called a community-driven marketplace.
- Others are experimenting with peer-to-peer marketplaces and blockchain-based escrow platforms that don’t rely on centralized servers.
- Abacus Market — once the largest Bitcoin-enabled Western darknet marketplace — went offline in early July 2025.
- Telegram’s creeping into the darknet scene—not full markets, but vendor channels.
- Darknet or dark web marketplaces are a hidden part of the internet that surface web users can’t access; they can only be accessed with special anonymity software called Tor.
Many people go to the dark web to buy things they can’t find elsewhere, but what if what you’re buying is also trying to harm you? Scammers on darknet markets claim to offer legit tools or services, but instead provide you with malicious software that can infect your device. However, if we’re being honest, the majority of activity on darknet markets involves illegal or heavily regulated items. A 2020 study found that almost 57% of sites on the Tor network hosted some form of illegal content. BidenCash is another latest marketplace that started in 2022, and is now home to sensitive financial data transactions. This is where cybercriminals go to buy and sell things like stolen credit card numbers, personally identifiable information (PII), and even SSH login details.
A Manhattan district attorney successfully used this evidence to bring charges against one of the suspects. Conversely, some fraud shops saw an increase in activity and higher revenues on-chain. The chart below shows fraud shops that performed well after the UAPS takedown, indicating that the customer migration was swift, and favored longstanding, trusted fraud shops like Vclub and Bankomat. After the UAPS infrastructure takedown, we observed a swift decline in on-chain activity from UAPS counterparties, indicating that many fraud shops relied on this infrastructure to process customer payments.
However, anonymous browsers are banned in China, while Russia and some other countries actively block their citizens from using them. BlackSprut placed first in a recent ranking of Dark Web marketplaces based on the amount of money deposited between January and November 2022. Known for drug trafficking and its alleged links to Russia, BlackSprut was the subject of a media controversy when several billboards for the marketplace were spotted in Moscow in early 2023. According to news reports at the time, it was unclear if these were paid ads or if the electronic billboards were hacked. But in December of that year, Russian authorities started blocking people’s access to Tor, describing it as a cover for illegal activities.
