Unfortunately, DeSnake’s contributions written in a mixture of English and Russian backfired and senior members of XSS berated them for their lack of operational security and inability to properly understand the dynamics of the Russian language. DeSnake joined the conversation, creating an account with his moniker on September 12, 2021 in attempts to mitigate the marketplace’s potential reputation damage. DeSnake repeatedly pointed to their vouches from Dread and old PGP key pasted to Ghostbin, paste site. 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. In 2016, an angry user of AlphaBay known as “Kinger” stated that alpha02 had left the market in late 2015, sold his stake to DeSnake, and DeSnake was supposedly acting as admin for its final two years.
Lookback: AlphaBay Market And Operation Bayonet Takedown
- Alphabay quickly became one of the top markets and took steps to become one of the most secure.
- Other marketplaces, including Bohemia and Libertas, have since attempted to stand up I2P mirrors, though the adoption by users and vendors seems slow and unenthusiastic.
- Watch our cyber team share their key insights from their investigations into the biggest dark web trends in 2022.
- Various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero can be used to make purchases.
- This isn’t just a quick list; it’s the full scoop on what they offer, how they keep things tight, and why they’re worth your time—or not.
He did not deserve that, I knew him and he really was a nice, bright guy who was genuine about the community and people regardless of what he did. We had big dreams and decentralized market project was on our to-do list to announce but it was all cut short way too soon by opsec failures, lack of following my opsec guidelines and of course dirty playing by LE with their parallel construction. So far, AlphaBay has managed to withstand DDoS attacks, criticism, and skepticism and is well positioned to be a safe haven for increasingly displaced marketplace vendors. Watch our cyber team share their key insights from their investigations into the biggest dark web trends in 2022.
Verified Market Links
The market was seized by law enforcement in July 2017 as part of Operation Bayonet, and although it was relaunched, its operational status is now offline. Falling short may be DeSnake’s push to adopt I2P as an alternative to Tor, as it has not had the impact on the marketplace landscape as expected. Other marketplaces, including Bohemia and Libertas, have since attempted to stand up I2P mirrors, though the adoption by users and vendors seems slow and unenthusiastic. It has built a reputation for being a reliable source of stolen credit card data and PII. Renowned for its extensive inventory of financial data and sophisticated operating methods, Brian’s Club is a key player in the underground economy of financial cybercrime. Based on our observations from analysis on dark web data using Lunar, we’ve identified the top 7 marketplaces on the dark web in 2025.
Office On Drugs And Crime
Today’s version of AlphaBay experienced a relatively slow start, as vendors and buyers questioned the nature of this relaunch, wary of law enforcement involvement. DeSnake’s eagerness to launch AlphaBay with increased security measures, like AlphaGuard and a decentralization project—an effort to sidestep whatever operational security Cazes blundered, eventually leading to his detainment—was met with some skepticism. Established in 2019, Russian Market is a well-known and highly regarded data store on the dark web, specializing in the sale of PII and various forms of stolen data. Despite its name, the marketplace operates primarily in English and serves a global audience.
Key Features Of AlphaBay (Post-Revival)
In a surprising twist, AlphaBay was revived in 2021 under the administration of “DeSnake”, one of the platform’s former co-founders. The new version of AlphaBay was redesigned with improved security features, including support for Monero (a privacy-focused cryptocurrency) and the I2P network, which offered additional layers of anonymity. This revival garnered significant attention within the darknet community, as AlphaBay’s return marked a comeback of a marketplace that had once been synonymous with illegal online trade. The darknet in 2025 is a thriving, evolving ecosystem of anonymous marketplaces accessible via Tor. Driven by demand for privacy and illicit goods, these top 10 markets—featuring Alphabay, Archetyp, and more—offer unparalleled variety, security, and resilience despite law enforcement crackdowns.
“Biggest issue in that regard is the human needs … I would say that is the biggest inconvenience,” DeSnake writes. “You make sacrifices. Though once you get used to it, it becomes second nature.” “This darknet site was recommended by friends, I just entered the name in the bing and immediately got here, after reading I was savvy in matters of using the site, I recommend Alphabay to everyone. Follow the link and you won’t regret it”. “I found this site by accident, but I realized that it was fate, the Alphabay market allowed me to purchase all the necessary goods in the shortest possible time, and the delivery really pleased me, everything was fast and reliable”. Convenient division into sections of goods into Alphabay onion allows people not to get confused and quickly find the necessary product. Interestingly, AlphaBay’s former moderator “Disc0” also chimed in, but using a lowercase “d” this time.
Key Takeaways From The AlphaBay Shutdown
After AlphaBay closed, Abacus Market took its place as the world’s largest underground darknet marketplaces. Abacus Market quickly rose to prominence by attracting former AlphaBay users and providing a comprehensive platform for a wide range of illicit activities. Established in 2019, Versus quickly gained a reputation for a user-friendly UI and intuitive search options. It has gained a lot of users and has become a popular marketplace due to its focus on security.
All Markets At A Glance
DeSnake argues that new safeguards like these will make AlphaBay that much harder to remove from the dark web this time around. “I had given Cazes many ‘holy grails’ of anonimity, but he chose to use only certain things while he branded other methods/ways as ‘overkill,’” DeSnake writes, in his seemingly foreign-inflected and occasionally misspelled English. “The biggest reason I am returning is to make the AlphaBay name be remembered as more than the marketplace which got busted and the founder made out to have committed suicide,” DeSnake writes. Cazes was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Thai jail cell a week after his arrest; like many in the dark web community, DeSnake believes Cazes was murdered in prison. He was driven to rebuild AlphaBay, he says, after reading about an FBI presentation on the circumstances of Cazes’ arrest that he deemed disrespectful. “AlphaBay name was put in bad light after the raids. I am here to make amends to that.”
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Prong 1: Taking Down AlphaBay, The Biggest Darknet Market
The contract system allows users to make engagements and agree to provide services in the future, according to the terms of the contract. By October 2015, less than a year of operating, AlphaBay already had over 200,000 users. At the time of its closing in July 2017, AlphaBay had over 400,000 active users. Fraud offerings like accounts, bank logs, fullz, and credit cards are second to drugs in terms of number of listings. Just over a year later, however, AlphaBay has emerged as a top, if not the top, illicit marketplace.
Some dark web marketplaces even host content that’s not just illegal but extremely harmful, so it’s really important to understand the risks before diving in. The story of dark web marketplaces kicks off with Silk Road, launched in 2011. It was the first big site where people could anonymously buy drugs using Bitcoin, and it gained a lot of attention, until it was shut down by the FBI in 2013. I want to dedicate this to alpha02 first and foremost we promised each other to go to the bitter end, here I am keeping my end of the deal. Second to all the previous AlphaBay users buyers and sellers alike who believed in us and support us throughout. Ideally the decentralized network would be up making any LE near impossible to actually disrupt operations.
WeTheNorth is a Canadian market established in 2021 that also serves international users. It offers counterfeit documents, financial fraud tools, hacking and malware services. It has an active forum and community along with an extensive user vetting process.
According to publicly available information on AlphaBay prior to its takedown, one AlphaBay staff member claimed that it serviced over 200,000 users and 40,000 vendors. Comparatively, the Silk Road dark web marketplace, which was seized by law enforcement in November 2013, had reportedly approximately 14,000 listings for illicit goods and services at the time of seizure and was the largest dark web marketplace at the time. AlphaBay was one of the most notorious darknet markets, operating on the Tor network and facilitating illegal trade in various goods, including drugs, weapons, stolen data, and counterfeit currency. Launched in 2014 by Alexandre Cazes, a Canadian citizen, the platform quickly became the largest of its kind, surpassing even the infamous Silk Road. At its peak, AlphaBay hosted more than 200,000 users and 40,000 vendors, offering over 250,000 listings for illegal substances and over 100,000 listings for cybercrime tools, such as malware and stolen identities.
It’s not as flashy as it once was (valued at a billion back in the day), but it’s functional, and they vet vendors hard. I’ve heard they’re eyeing a big vendor push in 2025 to get back on top—could mean more listings soon. DrugHub popped up in 2023 and quickly hit 15,000 listings—all drug-related. They’ve got a neat trick with a built-in Bitcoin mixer, plus Monero, so your payments stay hidden—perfect if you’re following our Monero tips.
Tor2door’s a standout since 2020 with 20,000+ listings and a custom design that’s not off-the-shelf junk. BTC and Monero accepted, with multi-signature escrow and global shipping—vendors love it, and I’ve seen why after snagging some rare stuff hassle-free. Drugs dominate, but digital goods are picking up—ties into the Telegram trend with side hustles. They’re talking AI search tools for 2025, which sounds slick—finding stuff could get way faster.
