Although some of these markets prohibit certain extreme content such as violence or exploitation, most operate with very few rules beyond ensuring the security and anonymity of their users. Established in 2022, Torzon market is one of the biggest and most diverse marketplaces on the dark web. It is considered very secure thanks to strict user validations and transparent payment and vendor review procedures. Known for its publicity stunt releasing millions of stolen card details for free, BidenCash specializes in credit card fraud and identity theft.
STYX Market
An award-winning cybercrime threat intelligence firm, KELA’s mission is to provide 100% real, actionable intelligence on threats emerging from the cybercrime underground, to support the prevention of digital crimes. Freshtools was established in 2019 and offers various stolen credentials, accounts, and host protocols like RDP. It is considered a go-to site for malware purchasing, providing keyloggers, trojans, and other Malware as a Service products. WizardShop has solidified its status as one of the best data stores in the dark web by providing an impressive quantity of quality data as well as providing a trustworthy, easy to use interface allowing criminals easy and secure buying and selling.
Common Scams And Fraudulent Activities On Darknet Markets

We evaluated our method on our annotated data set, which yields an accuracy of over 90% for each property extraction, as shown in Table 5. In this way, we collected 7100 promotion posts and 6408 review posts from forum posts in total. Can we talk about how this dude was trying to sell me MDA for $200/gram when I have a dealer off the darknet for $17.28/gram? While the purity of coke and heroin that she bought varied somewhat, it was much easier to avoid fentanyl.
- Since 2020, 2easy has sold massive stealer logs with sensitive data like passwords, bank cards, and initial access credentials.
- Addressing this challenge requires deep domain knowledge and expertise, which is constantly evolving.
- One thing that distinguishes BidenCash on the dark web, however, is how it markets itself.
- In this way, we gathered 5 active underground marketplaces with opioid listings.
- Investigators received leads from local police departments investigating overdose deaths, including that of a 19-year-old man in Colorado who loved learning languages and building his own computers, according to FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.
As cyber threat intelligence professionals monitor these markets, they gain insights into emerging threats and malicious activities that can impact organizations and individuals. Our team searched the dark web and put together a list of the most active dark web marketplaces in order to assist you in monitoring illegal trade of products, cybercrime activity, and dark web trends in the dark web space. You can use dark web monitoring tools, such as NordVPN’s Dark Web Monitor, to check if your data has been leaked.
Stocks Add A Bit To Their Records On Wall Street
The dark web offers vital anonymity for vendors and buyers, who use cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to process transactions. The cycle Christin describes—law enforcement takedowns followed by a slow but robust recovery—has played out on the dark web again and again, repeating roughly every year or two. After the late 2013 takedown of the Silk Road, the first real dark-web drug market, more than a dozen replacements rose up to fill the demand for anonymous online narcotics sales. A massive crackdown called Operation Onymous followed in late 2014, seizing a broad swath of the dark web and arresting 17 people by exploiting a vulnerability in the anonymity software Tor, which serves as the dark web’s fundamental cloaking tool. To buy his fentanyl, the man uses “darknet” sites, which are unlisted on search engines, rely on a special private browser for access, and don’t tie his username to his identity.
Top 7 Dark Web Marketplaces
One of them – “Emirates” having over 300,000 successful deals on Hydra. The top selling and highest rated store on BlackSprut is ‘Sliviki Shop’. Below, is a picture of the top 10 vendors and services on the platform. Even if this statement was true, some of the accounts released were most certainly valid at the moment of publication, and they contained information about operations arranged on the marketplace. Trade is booming despite disruptions from law enforcement and particularly “exit scams”, in which market admins abruptly close down sites and take all available funds. The biggest takedowns in terms of volume – Silk Road, AlphaBay and Wall Street – have been police-led, but in 2018, the EMCDDA published a study which found that, of the more than 100 markets, just 10 percent closed as a consequence of overt police action.
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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. Other reputable sellers who joined Kraken include “Shiva” operating at least since 2014 in Dark Web. Both services have extremely sophisticated network of couriers with wide inventory of illegal drugs. As for RuTor’s ownership, this post by user ‘ER1VD4PC’ alleges that new owners of the forum are the Khimprom syndicate, “a large cartel, but alas, already operating under protection,” according to the translation. Such claims couldn’t be fully validated and should be treated with certain grain of salt. Same time, RuTOR may be definitely named one of the longest living underground communities surviving challenging times for other Dark Web actors without significant issues.

Central and Eastern regions are most affected; the leaders are Moscow and Saint Petersburg cities and oblasts. Correlation matrix of Hydra marketplace indicators with official statistical variables. Listings included offerings of prescription medication that was falsely advertised as being authentic.
Exploitation Of Anonymity For Harm

It has a bidding feature, with new batches of stolen data being frequently added. There’s also a privacy angle—some users live in countries with censorship or surveillance, and the dark web gives them a space to communicate or access information more freely. It’s been a constant back-and-forth between cybercriminals and law enforcement, with each new site trying to be smarter and more secure than the last. The second category consists of data stores, which specialize in stolen information. As of 2020, nearly 57% of the dark web was estimated to contain illegal content, including violence and extremist platforms.
FBI’s Role In Policing The Dark Web

This article reveals the top 10 dark web markets dominating in 2025, their unique characteristics, and the critical implications for enterprise cybersecurity. Although EU borders did not close to trade, shipping was hit, with capacity worldwide falling by 20 percent during lockdown, to lower than at any time in the last decade. If fewer ships and precursors arrived, then it seemed obvious that fewer drugs would be made and sold. In May, the EU’s drugs agency, the EMCDDA, reported that Cannazon — a cannabis-only online market — sold 1.6 tonnes of weed, worth €5.2 million $5.9 million, up 27 percent in volume between January and March. It maintains a very strict level of user verification and integration with an official Telegram account to provide real-time updates to users.
Freshtools is a unique marketplace in that it does not only provide the stolen data, but it allows criminals to purchase MaaS which can cause further damage to the victims. It is one of the most active and up to date markets and always provides new and updated malware and data. Launched in 2020, Cypher Marketplace sells fraudulent documents, stolen credit cards, fake IDs, and malware.
What Exactly Is Sold On These Marketplaces?
The site’s slick—vendor stats update live, checkout’s a breeze, and the vibe’s modern without being over-the-top. I’ve used it a handful of times; deliveries landed smooth via DeadDrops—plain packaging, no fuss. It’s not the biggest player like Abacus, but it’s got a loyal crew and uptime that rarely blinks. If you’re into a darknet market that feels cutting-edge and keeps your coins safe, ASAP Darknet Market’s a gem—just don’t expect a massive catalog yet; it’s more about precision than sprawl.
Upon inspection, the main difference with Anon Market is their vast catalog of pharmaceuticals, specifically prescription drugs. In the image below you can see an array of pharmaceuticals currently for sale at the time of writing. Additionally, threat actor ‘GermanDrugScout24’ advertised a wide array of illicit substances priced in euros. Unless there is a plausible connection between WayWay and Solaris, the teams running them entered a direct conflict right before the start of 2023.