Η σελίδα DarkMarket was reportedly the largest dark web market in the world. After an international operation coordinated by Europol, the authorities managed to close it.
German authorities arrested an Australian believed to be Admin of the illegal site and seized 20 servers, ending a major hub of illegal activity
Prior to the closure, DarkMarket hosted about 500.000 users and facilitated more than 320.000 transactions, according to Europol.
The market exchanged everything from drugs and counterfeit money to stolen credit card information and malware software.
According to Europol's estimate, the site had traded the equivalent of 140 million euros, in bitcoin and monero. European authorities plan to use the confiscated DarkMarket servers from Ukraine and Moldova to further investigate buyers and sellers who have used the site for criminal transactions.
DarkMarket was revealed in a broader research for web hosting company Cyberbunker. Cyberbunker (based in a former NATO depot) used to host Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks servers. Of course, DarkMarket's case is the biggest.
In recent years, there has been a tightening of dark web sites and sites such as DarkMarket. THE Wall Street Market, had a similar end in 2020 at duration a European survey and other sites such as Empire Market have disappeared altogether, either out of fear of prosecution or because managers are collecting revenue and disappearing.
So sites like Alphabay or Silk Road have disappeared as government agencies have proven that the dark web is not so anonymous.
