Analysts noted that Telegram enabled a shift toward decentralised “broker networks,” where smaller groups coordinated sales of Genesis-style data. This decentralised model makes it far more challenging to target with a single operation. The way darknet actors coordinate has undergone a dramatic shift in the past decade. Once dominated by cloistered IRC channels and hidden .onion forums, the conversation has now moved to mainstream messaging platforms. Today, Telegram channels, bot networks, and private groups have become the default infrastructure for criminal coordination. This shift has not only reshaped how operations are run but also how law enforcement approaches surveillance and takedowns.
Exodus Marketplace
You should be aware that law enforcement agencies may be monitoring the dark web and that visiting certain websites or engaging in illegal activities can result in criminal charges. You can also check out this ultimate dark web safety guide to browse safely. However, when it comes to darknet markets, the story is very different. Dark web marketplaces are mostly hubs for illicit goods and activities, posing serious risks to users and the wider community. With $50M+ in monthly trades across our top 10, the stakes are high—scams cost $1M+ yearly, and 30% of links are traps.
Darknet marketplaces in 2025 illustrate a resilient and evolving underground economy. Major active platforms include Abacus, Russian Market, BriansClub, and Exodus. Law enforcement takedowns, such as Archetyp, demonstrate both impact and adversary adaptation. For cybersecurity professionals, focusing on payment methods, vendor migration, and marketplace specialisation offers the most effective path to actionable intelligence. In 2025, darknet marketplaces primarily accept Monero (XMR) and Bitcoin (BTC).
- Though they have their limitations, most of the time you’ll see irrelevant or spammy links for your search results.
- WeTheNorth, launched in Canada in 2021, caters to both domestic and international audiences.
- One of Daniel’s impressive features was the built-in functionality that showed whether a particular dark website is online.
- BriansClub remains a long-standing credit card data shop since at least 2014.
- Launched after the takedown of AlphaBay in 2021, Abacus Market has rapidly risen to prominence.
Monero’s Reign
BidenCash was launched in 2022, and since it became a hot spot for cybercriminals to sell and buy illegal things, including stolen card information and personal data. However, in June 2025, BidenCash’s relevant domains (around 145) were seized by the US Department of Justice. The site gives out free samples of the stolen data every now and then to gain more customers. With its fast rise to fame and focus on money fraud, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity experts are keeping a very close eye on this one. Next up is Abacus, another newer market that has already made a massive name for itself, especially following AlphaBay’s closure.
Others sell pirated eBooks, academic materials, and entire premium courses ripped straight from paid platforms. It brings in vendor reviews from other places and verifies them using PGP signatures, so buyers can feel a bit more confident about who they’re dealing with. There’s also a premium account option for users who want extra benefits. And when it comes to paying, the site sticks to Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) to keep transactions private.
CISOs Brace For Supply Chain Attacks With Proactive Attack Surface Monitoring
That push led to the arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, after a long and intense investigation. Remember, staying informed is your best defense against misinformation. When you know what to expect, you’re less likely to fall for a trick and should be able to keep your identity safe. Surprisingly, most guns on the darknet actually start as legal products.
Key Cybercrime Forums
This keeps trust tight across its huge user and seller base, with scams under 0.5%. Its Tor routing holds a 97% uptime, with rare breaks tied to scaling up, not attacks. Currency use shows its wide appeal—BTC runs 65% of trades for speed and ease, while XMR’s privacy jumped to 35% in 2025 from 25% in 2024, boosted by a 20% rise in privacy-focused users since late 2024. Abacus leans hard on its payment protection system, hitting a 98% success rate—one of the best we’ve tracked—keeping deals smooth between its 15,000+ users and 1,200+ sellers with few hiccups.
Why Is It Critical To Monitor Dark Web Marketplaces?
While some of these markets were shuttered by law enforcement agencies – some took the easy way out with exit scams. Here are some of the now-defunct dark web markets that were notorious for cybercrime. Some forums tried to capitalize on the temporary demise of the BreachForums after the admin pompompurin’s arrest, however they did not last long.
The Best Dark Web Markets To Consider In 2025
Want to get illegal drugs, fake passports, Trojan, or other cyber attack software? Active for a decade since 2014, it is a widely used credit card shop used to source stolen credit card information such as dumps, CVVs, Wholesale Accounts. Never log in with your real name or reuse passwords from other accounts.
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. Much like with drug sales, a similar pattern of task differentiation emerged among darknet markets providing cybercriminal services. As for cybercriminal administration, the category includes inflows from ransomware affiliate wallets. This includes purchases such as malicious software and supporting services which cybercriminals sometimes make using escrow services on crime forums.
Abacus Market: Facilitating Illicit Drug Trade
The browser uses onion routing technology to route the internet traffic through multiple relay nodes that provide layered encryption. The layers of encryption hide your data and activity from snooping eyes. Track and analyze darknet activities using our advanced cyber threat intelligence platform to stay ahead of emerging threats. 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.
It offers top-of-the-line security and fast speeds for a smooth browsing experience on the dark web. A reliable, fast, and user-friendly VPN service offering lots of customizable options for privacy geeks. It adds an extra encryption layer and passes your traffic through a secondary server of your choice, preventing anyone from seeing that you are accessing the web via Tor.
