Ransomware gangs are also expected to diversify their tactics, targeting smaller companies and individual users to maximize their reach. Businesses should prepare for more sophisticated ransomware campaigns, potentially leveraging AI to exploit security gaps. Huge quantities of cigarettes are also regularly and easily intercepted, with entire crates filled with seized tobacco products.
Plateau In Bitcoin Mixer Services
Last week, one of the dark web’s most prominent drug marketplaces – Archetyp – was shut down in an international, multi-agency law enforcement operation following years of investigations. It was touted as a major policing win and was accompanied by a slick cyberpunk-themed video. 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. We developed Lunar to monitor the deep and dark web, including dark web marketplace sites. The distribution methods for these products vary depending on what is being sold.
One Of The Most Popular Dark Web Markets
While it can be used for illegal activities, there are also perfectly legitimate forums, social networks, and communities. The dark web, on the other hand, is a small part of the deep web that requires special tools like the Tor browser to access. The deep web refers to all online content not indexed by search engines, such as virtual private networks and internal business systems.
Plus, dark web search engines can also allow political dissidents to bypass government censorship, or for journalists to safely engage with whistleblowers. Businesses can use deep and dark web monitoring tools to keep track of stolen credentials or mentions of their brand to protect against cyberattacks. For example, YoMix is a bitcoin mixer used by the Lazarus Group to launder their stolen cryptocurrency profits, with a massive influx of laundered funds in 2023. Crypto-laundering threat actors specialize in stealing and hiding the origins of their cryptocurrency. Cryptojacking involves secretly mining for cryptocurrency via the victim’s device. Social media and gaming platforms are increasingly being used to recruit inexperienced hackers, further expanding these gangs’ reach.
- 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.
- Various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero can be used to make purchases.
- In the absence of a legal market for these drugs, this violence will continue unabated, much as it has since the beginning of the war on drugs.
- According to the 2023 National Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System survey, there was a slight decline of people buying drugs on the dark web, with more people turning to messaging and social media apps to source drugs.
- Using the lab data about each sample’s composition, the research team investigated whether drugs from the dark web were more likely to contain the substance advertised and less likely to contain contaminants, compared to those bought offline.
- “However, we know through research on darknet market takedown operations that this ecosystem is quick to adapt to removal of markets.
The earliest modern online anonymous markets, often referred to as darknet markets or cryptomarkets, appeared in early 2010, and evolved from an encrypted email service and migrated on to a Tor (The Onion Router) anonymity network to guarantee better anonymity to users. The first darknet market of notoriety was Silk Road, which opened at the end of January 2011 and was seized by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in October 2013 (DEA, 2013). Silk Road 2.0 was launched soon after the original Silk Road was seized and since that time there has been a proliferation of darknet markets.. Sedatives (such as diazepam and alprazolam) and CNS stimulants (mainly Adderall, modafinil and methylphenidate) had the greatest share of sales, but usage and trends varied by location. The UK has high and rising levels of sedative sales, whilst the USA has the greatest stimulant sales and increasing sedative rates. Sales of drugs used in the treatment of opioid dependency are also substantial in the USA.
Connect With ABC News
Beginning in September 2021, Abacus Market has established itself as one of the leading dark web marketplaces. 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. 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. Globally, police seized over 41 million USD in cash and cryptocurrencies, 45 firearms, and 234 kilograms of drugs.
Professor Broadhurst says fentanyl is a designer synthetic opioid that can be up to 80 times more powerful than morphine. Carfentanil is not for human use and was originally designed to sedate elephants. ANU has a huge variety of support services, programs and activities to enhance your student experience. Ransomware groups are anticipated to split into smaller, independent units, making them harder to track. Such decentralization, along with the reuse of leaked malware source codes, will allow new, low-skilled actors to enter the ransomware ecosystem. In 2025, this trend is expected to continue, pushing cybercriminals to adopt more sophisticated and anonymous operating models, such as closed, invitation-only forums.
Securing Virtualized Environments – Hypervisor Security Best Practices
But when a vendor is arrested, their activity is disrupted across every DNM they operate on. As a result, law enforcement has adopted an intelligence-led enforcement strategy incorporating DNM takedowns into longer-term investigations rather than treating them as end goals. In late June 2025, users began reporting withdrawal issues with Abacus Market, which typically indicates an impending exit scam. The marketplace’s administrator, known as ‘Vito’, responded on darkweb discussion forum Dread, claiming an influx of Archetyp users and a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack were the reasons for the issues. While they made no local arrests, the AFP had aided the global police effort by providing crucial work that laid the foundation of the sting. While the darknet is present globally, Australia has been a key player in the darknet industry.
For example, cannabis was the most popularly traded drug by domestic cryptomarket vendors, accounting for 25% of all recorded transactions. This was followed by prescription drugs (20%), ecstasy (16%), psychedelics such as magic mushrooms and LSD (12%), methamphetamine (12%) and cocaine (8%). Opioids such as heroin accounted for only 3% of all transactions undertaken by Australian cryptomarket vendors. According to research presented by the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association Conference, Australia is a leading country in the darknet drugs trade. The report highlights how we have more online drug vendors per capita than any other nation except for the Netherlands.
Continued Popularity Of Black Traffic Schemes
The papers have been cited within the report and are also being made available here for those who would like further information on the topic. However, the views, interpretations and conclusions set out in this publication are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the EMCDDA, Europol or their partners, any EU Member State or any agency or institution of the European Union. “This research was done pre-COVID but what we’ve been seeing now is a lifting of all boats as buyers seek alternative means of supply. A small stealth package posted home becomes an easy option. “The disruption to the online supply of fentanyl in particular is notable,” Professor Broadhurst said. The research was done at the height of the availability of these drugs in 2019.
The Dark Web Down Under: What’s Driving The Rise And Rise Of NZ’s ‘Tor Market’ For Illegal Drugs?
In early July, 2025, Abacus Market, the largest Bitcoin-enabled Western darknet marketplace (DNM), went offline, rendering all internet-facing infrastructure, including its clearnet mirror, inaccessible. TRM Labs assesses that the marketplace’s operators have likely conducted an exit scam, shutting down operations and disappearing with users’ funds. These findings indicate that the prices of Australian darknet drugs are much more closely correlated to local street prices than they are to those sold by foreign vendors. Only methamphetamine was significantly cheaper when purchased from an Australian cryptomarket vendor compared to a local street dealer, with prices approximately 45% lower when sourced online. Australians are increasingly using eBay-style darknet marketplaces or cryptomarkets to buy and sell illicit drugs. As a result, we are seeing people who would never have considered selling drugs on the street getting involved in illegal online drug sales.
Dr Martin says darknet trading is very difficult to police, but it’s not all bad news for law enforcement. Shipping drugs internationally from Australia doesn’t carry as much risk as you would think, Dr Martin says. “So I think the very large portions that we see of the darknet methamphetamine trade concentrated in Australia really reflects the relative lack of popularity of that drug in Europe and places like that.”
Shuttered Dark Web Marketplaces
Our analysis also focused on the price of illicit drugs that are sold on the darknet. Here we found large disparities between the prices of illicit drugs sold by foreign-based cryptomarket vendors and those located in Australia. For example, average prices for ecstasy sold by Australian vendors were more than six times the price of those sold by their foreign counterparts. Methamphetamine and cocaine were approximately three times more expensive when purchased from an Australian cryptomarket vendor. Only cannabis was priced similarly, with prices from Australian and foreign vendors largely comparable.
This joint report prepared by the EMCDDA and Europol considers the latest findings from international research, fresh empirical data, and operational information and intelligence in order to illuminate how darknet markets function and how they relate to criminal behaviour. It is comprehensive but accessible and policy-oriented, intended to facilitate discussions at EU-level on how to respond to darknet drug markets, whilst identifying key priority areas that require attention and where activities are likely to have most impact. The relatively high prices charged by local cryptomarket vendors are likely to be interpreted as signs of success by Australian border protection agencies. They are evidence that while foreign vendors are typically prepared to send illicit drugs to Australia, many local consumers are averse to the risks this entails. The perception that drugs may be intercepted entering the country therefore contributes to the high prices that local consumers pay for illicit drugs. Australian cryptomarket vendors sell a wide variety of illicit drugs, and are disproportionately represented in global terms for sales of ecstasy, opioids and, particularly, methamphetamine.
