Using this access, the police had modified the platform’s code to collect data from vendors and buyers of counterfeit goods like drugs, toxic chemicals, firearms, malware, and other fraudulent activity. Data including email addresses, passwords, PGP keys, history, messages and more were tracked. It opened up huge data pools and gave global law enforcement teams insights into thousands of cybercriminals. AlphaBay emerged as one of the most notorious marketplaces on the deep web, showcasing the complexities and challenges of illicit online trading. Launched in December 2014, it quickly gained traction among users seeking a variety of goods, ranging from illegal drugs to counterfeit items.
The Biggest Dark Web Takedown Yet Sends Black Markets Reeling
Monero’s my go-to for dark web payments because it’s darn near impossible to trace. With tricks like ring signatures and stealth addresses, it keeps your transactions off the radar—unlike Bitcoin, which can leave a trail if you’re not careful. If you’re curious about what’s going on in the dark web next year, you’re in the right place. I’ve been digging into marketplaces like Abacus and AlphaBay for a while now, and this page breaks down what’s hot in 2025.
All Markets At A Glance
As recently as last year, a California Court sentenced Brian Herrell, a Colorado native and AlphaBay moderator who operated under the moniker “Botah” to 11 years in prison for racketeering and for his connections to AlphaBay. 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.
DeSnake has broken this mold with their dramatic return to the public eye that included interviews with the media and identity verification through a potentially compromised PGP key. One user openly joked they would stick to purchasing their drugs on social media. Like the historic AlphaBay, the market’s forum is located on the same domain as the market and has limited discussions. Most of the forum is marked private until the user formally introduces themselves in accordance with the rules outlined by DeSnake. There is a “Admin” account as was the case with the historical AlphaBay forum, and DeSnake also has their own personal account. DarkOwl believes this account may be maintained by DeSnake based on the observation that they leave a similar “Thank You.” at the end of every post.
- The new AlphaBay market’s Tor service has been unstable since its launch, with frequent 503 errors, user registration issues, and login timeouts.
- DarkOwl has been unable to assess how the larger darknet community (outside of Dread) feels about the new Alphabay Market.
- AlphaBay’s dark web site is now accessible not only via Tor, like the original AlphaBay, but also I2P, a less popular anonymity system that DeSnake encourages users to switch to.
- He maintains, at the very least, that his client’s suicide is far from proven, though he admits he doesn’t know who would have killed Cazes—or had him killed.
- He asked the shirtless, panicked young man to please follow him for a moment so that they could speak privately.
AlphaBay Marketplace Returns
STYX Market focuses specifically on financial fraud, making it a go-to destination for cybercriminals engaged in this activity. According to several sources AlphaBay 2.0 was shutdown in 2023 as the result of AlphaGuard being deployed. The administrator, DeSnake, for unknown reasons, was unable to sign off in time, leading to the end of AlphaBay 2.0. Though the creator and administrator of AlphaBay was arrested, his second in command, known as “DeSnake” was still active. Despite these takedowns, the impact and consequences of the crimes it facilitated continues to today.
After the arrest, while waiting for extradition to the United States, Cazes apparently died by suicide while in custody in Thailand. Later that month, the US Attorney’s Office in California filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Cazes and his wife’s high value assets located across the globe, including several luxury vehicles, residences, and a hotel in Thailand, as well as millions in cryptocurrency. But there were flaws with the operational security takedown of these marketplaces. Fraud offerings like accounts, bank logs, fullz, and credit cards are second to drugs in terms of number of listings.
Cazes, nervously speaking in Thai, offered him 100,000 baht to drop the charges, around $3,000. When they had finished negotiating, the husband instructed Cazes to hand the phone to the police, and Cazes did as he was told. The police colonel introduced himself, put a paternal hand on Cazes’ shoulder, and gave him a knowing look. He asked the shirtless, panicked young man to please follow him for a moment so that they could speak privately. As Pong and two other Thai cops had wrestled Cazes to his knees and handcuffed him, the DEA’s Guzman had run out of the spec house, leaving the bewildered real estate agent behind. As was customary in Thailand, Guzman had taken off his shoes to go into the model home and hadn’t had time to put them back on, so he stood in the street in his socks.
AlphaBay: The Black Market In The Spotlight
The email explained that the sender had been googling dark-web arrests, looking for a law enforcement contact. Finally, they’d found Miller’s contact information in one of the Fresno team’s criminal indictments of an AlphaBay drug dealer. By the time he recruited Robert Miller out of the DEA’s wiretap room, Rabenn’s team had already achieved some success with their undercover approach. They’d started by cracking down on a few so-called peer-to-peer exchangers—individuals who bought and sold bitcoins in the real world and were often used by dark-web dealers to cash out their dirty cryptocurrency. In several cases, they’d mined those exchangers’ Rolodexes for leads on the legal names of dealers who’d done business with them, tracked them down, and arrested them.
Centralized darknet markets are taking hits—think Hydra’s takedown in 2022. Now, places like ASAP are talking decentralized setups, spreading the load across nodes so they’re harder to shut down. I’ve seen some beta versions popping up on forums, and they’re rough but promising. Data breaches like the ones mentioned above highlight the significant threats posed by dark web black markets. Stolen data can quickly transition from legitimate systems to underground forums, where it becomes a valuable commodity for cybercriminals.
Best Darknet Markets
In 2025, it hosts over 2.5 million active users daily, with markets facilitating billions in cryptocurrency transactions annually. Many buyers and sellers decided to choose Empire as their new shelter for illegal activities, but some administrators betrayed their trust and pulled out the exit scam that cost its users a million dollar damage. White House Market with its advanced security features and wide product range managed to retain the predominant position, but on the 1st of October 2021 they announced their peaceful retirement. WeTheNorth is a Canadian market established in 2021 that also serves international users. It offers counterfeit documents, financial fraud tools, hacking and malware services.
Tor Browser: Accessing The Darknet
At the center of the long table was a conference phone connected to both the Thai team on the ground and another team of agents in Lithuania, tasked with imaging the AlphaBay server—taking a snapshot of its contents and then, after Cazes’ arrest, pulling it offline. Their DeadDrop system and wallet-less payments mean no one’s running off with your cash—perfect if you’re paranoid like me after a bad deal once. Listings aren’t public, but it’s steady as heck with 2FA and top-shelf encryption. They’re hinting at going decentralized in 2025—less downtime, more trust, right in line with the decentralized trend. The site’s slick, with vendor stats updating live and a checkout that’s a breeze. I’ve used it a few times, and it’s never let me down—great for folks who like their dark web with a modern twist.
Apart from the dark web markets that are operating online today, some raided platforms influenced many markets. By supplying stolen data, these dark web links fuel many online scams and identity theft operations, playing a critical role in the darker aspects of the internet. In analyzing user patterns on AlphaBay, it becomes clear how pivotal community interactions were to maintaining user loyalty.
The sites, where people could buy drugs, guns and child pornography, had flourished since 2014, when a predecessor, Silk Road, was shut down. The anonymity on the Darknet allows vendors to stay undetected by using multiple vendor aliases or frequently migrating between markets. Consequently, illegal markets and their connections are challenging to uncover on the Darknet. To identify relationships between illegal markets and their vendors, we propose VendorLink, an NLP-based approach that examines writing patterns to verify, identify, and link unique vendor accounts across text advertisements (ads) on seven public Darknet markets.
The site looks sharp, and vendor profiles are packed with ratings and reviews. They’ve got forums where people actually talk, which builds trust—kinda like the Telegram vibe. For 2025, they’re teasing a peer-to-peer escrow setup—could be a game-changer. It’s picking up steam fast, and I’d keep an eye on it if you like a community feel.
