The goods on sale range from stolen credit card data and forged documents to illegal drugs, weapons, malware as a service, and hacking tools. Studying illicit drug circulation and its effects on population health is complicated due to the criminalization of trade and consumption. Illicit drug markets have evolved with IT, moving digital to the “darknet.” Previous research has analyzed darknet market listings and customer reviews. Research tools include public health surveys and medical reports but lack neutral data on drugs’ spread and impact. This study fills this gap with an analysis of the volume of drugs traded on the darknet market.
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. In 2023, the dark web attracted an average of 2.7 million daily users, with Germany now leading as the country with the highest number of Tor users, surpassing the United States for the first time in years. Between June 11 and 13, 2025, a coordinated effort known as Operation Deep Sentinel was conducted.
Office Of The Chief Data Officer
Notably, the growing tensions between Solaris and WayWay have also been heating up as claims of possible money theft from Solaris appear the same month (December 2022), which later have been disputed by Solaris Administrators and interpreted as “geopolitical” and “fake”. According to them, their marketplace is completely safe and they spent significant financial means to maintain the infrastructure, but competitors and other malicious parties attempted to abuse their reputation. Same time, Solaris has also announced a significant upgrade to their payment system and blocked all payouts for 2 days around the same time which may confirm some activities behind the scenes, likely related to improvements of security of the marketplace. Kraken, a WayAway partner and exclusive drug market, has been hyped as the successor to Hydra since May 2022. WayAway also promotes the Monero anonymity enhancing cryptocurrency far more prominently than other regional DNMs.
Exposure To Malware And Scams
“It became a threatening match and they sent photos of thugs with guns saying they were going to come for me,” he says. For every illegal drug, there is a combination of emojis that dealers and consumers use to evade detection on social media and messaging platforms. Grapes and baby bottles are the calling cards for codeine-containing cough syrup, or lean. The humble maple leaf, meanwhile, is the universal symbol for all drugs. 2024 saw 42% fewer new darknet marketplaces (DNMs) launched year over year, with the proportion of Monero-only DNMs launched increasing from little more than a third in 2023 to nearly half in 2024.
Dark Web Reveals Tech Companies Leak Most User Data
This shows that while the dark web gets all the attention, it’s far from the internet’s biggest problem. For those who are averse to confrontation, and who are sufficiently tech-savvy, the dark web offers an alternative to the risk and violence of dealing drugs offline. Naaaah surely not.” Plus if I’m honest, my inner reprobate buzzes from it. The rush of chucking a grand’s worth of drugs into post boxes… unreal, man. The Dutch national police’s Cyber Enabled Crime Team was involved in the operation, codenamed SpecTor. The FBI’s Blanton told WIRED that no dark-web market has reached AlphaBay’s scope since.
Financial Markets, Financial Institutions, And Fiscal Service
Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. The Administrators of Solaris also highlighted strong connection to KillNet responsible for multiple DDOS attacks against the U.S., NATO and various EU-based government resources – who may assist Solaris in fighting against their competitors and enemies.
Associated Data
- The investigators identified the suspects (many behind thousands of sales on illicit online marketplaces) using intelligence collected following takedowns of multiple dark web markets, including Nemesis, Bohemia, Tor2Door, and Kingdom Market.
- This dramatic increase may reflect the decentralization of the drug trade away from traditional darknet markets, as vendors grow more adept at operating across multiple platforms on both the clearnet and darknet — including e-commerce websites and social media platforms.
- As one of PrivacySavvy’s resident VPN experts, he guides readers on protecting their online information and anonymity.
- THE HAGUE — Authorities in the U.S. and Europe arrested nearly 300 people, confiscated more than $53 million and seized a dark-web marketplace as part of an international crackdown on drug trafficking that officials say was the largest operation of its kind.
- Europol will continue working with our partners to make the internet safer for everyone.”
- As encryption, anonymity and privacy are central to the design of the darknet and its various drug markets, up-to-date information on drug trends is difficult to come by.
It has been in operation for more than a decade since its debut in 2014. Brian’s Club is one of the best place to buy stolen credit card info, including CVVs, dumps, and even full account packages without revealing your identity. From items like drugs, fake ID cards, and hacked bank accounts to more complex offerings like human trafficking, these sites carry all the illegal activities you can think of. Although these marketplaces are continuously shut down by law enforcement agencies, they still work today.
This shop primarily deals in synthetic drugs like mephedrone, A-PVP, and ecstasy. Product offerings are mostly drugs, as illustrated by the top banner. Dark web chatter and innuendo suggests how both DNMs are rumored to be more pro-Ukrainian than Russian.
Biggest Dark Web Marketplaces
In addition to Empire Market’s more than 18,000 drug listings, another site called Nightmare Market now lists 28,000 drug products, along with the dark web’s usual assortment of stolen credit card numbers, counterfeits, and hacking tools. A new, Reddit-style forum site called Dread, hosted on a Tor hidden service, has already replaced the seized DeepDotWeb as a community hub, where users discuss which site to use when one is taken down by police or turns out to be run by scammers. Operation RapTor resulted in the highest number of seizures of any JCODE operation, including more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms. Cybercriminals go on dark web marketplaces to buy and sell illicit goods and services.
The market is known for its extensive product listings and reputation system that helps buyers evaluate the reliability of vendors. Here’s a look at the top 10 dark web markets currently dominating this underground space. One Archetyp Market moderator and six of the marketplace’s highest vendors were also arrested in Germany and Sweden. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers. The arrest of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, in August 2024 triggered a notable shift in the operational dynamics of the platform’s drug vendors.
And so, the cycle continues – one closure followed by the next platform launch. Just as Archetyp filled the void left by the dismantling of other online drug markets that existed before it, its successor may already be taking shape. When Archetyp went fully offline in June 2025, it triggered the same recovery reflexes seen after past collapses. But this time, however, the process was faster and on a larger scale.
What Is The Darknet Market?
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. The operation targeted Archetyp Market, a platform with over 600,000 users and transactions totaling at least 250 million euros, underscoring the scale and ongoing challenge of illicit drug sales facilitated by anonymizing technologies. Today’s action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14059, which targets proliferators of narcotics and their means of production, underscores the United States’ commitment to combatting all means of supplying narcotics to the United States.
This “market cannibalization” has further destabilized the landscape, pushing vendors and buyers to seek refuge in smaller, more secure spaces. While the above-mentioned examples of interventions effectively reduced the volume of the darknet drug trade, the policy recommendations presented above were designed to be implemented among potential customers. Since some users purchase on the darknet because they do not want to risk a personal meeting with dealers, darknet markets extend the range of potential users (Pergolizzi et al., 2017). While these users might be deterred from purchasing drugs, the effectiveness of influencing the risk perception of actual darknet market customers who may be addicted drug users is questionable.
Is an English and Russian language marketplace that seems to have captured many of Hydra’s former vendors and consumers. In the first arc of the anime series Lupin the 3rd Part V, Lupin III steals digital currency from the “Marco Polo” darknet market. In particular, pig butchering schemes involving cryptocurrency have been increasing.
Social Media
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in collaboration with Europol, the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement Team, and various national and international partners, announced the results of Operation RapTOR May 22. This historic takedown, led by Europol, resulted in the highest number of seizures in JCODE’s history. Manual monitoring of the dark web is inefficient and risky due to the sheer volume of data involved. This early detection allows organizations to identify and respond to threats quickly, reducing the chances of unauthorized access, financial loss, or damage to brand reputation. Organizations need automated dark web monitoring to prevent cyberattacks.
