Dream Market seemed to be the next move for dark web vendors, but some question how reliable it is. “Critics will say as we shutter one site, another will emerge,” McCabe said at a press conference. “But that is the nature of criminal work. It never goes away, you have to constantly keep at it, and you have to use every tool in your toolbox.” Users on the dark web will need to find a new marketplace after AlphaBay was shut down.
On the evening after the arrest, Rabenn and Hemesath met with Cazes for the first time. He sat in a conference room of the NSB office—accompanied, for the moment, only by a Thai police chaperone and two Thai lawyers, whom Cazes had hired to temporarily oversee his defense. For Rabenn, who had hunted Cazes for the better part of a year across the digital world, sharing a room with his target still felt surreal. Cazes didn’t recognize either of the prosecutors, whom he had sat down next to in the Athenee just a few days earlier by sheer chance.
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As DeSnake describes it, AlphaGuard will automatically rent and set up new servers if it detects that AlphaBay’s are being taken offline. He even claims that AlphaGuard will automatically hack other websites and plant data on their servers to give users “withdrawal codes” they can use to save the cryptocurrency they’ve stored on AlphaBay in case of a takedown. “It is a system to ensure users can withdraw funds, settle disputes, and generally go without a cent lost if raids happen,” DeSnake writes, “even if it happens on all servers at the same time. It is unstoppable.” DeSnake, by contrast, makes the very bold claim that his work PC could not implicate him even if seized. DeSnake has started building the next generation decentralized marketplace network.
Paying With Monero: A Quick Rundown
Alpha02 was a well known if not exceptionally talented “carder,” a cybercriminal hacker focused on credit card theft and fraud. He’d become a significant player on Tor Carding Forum, a dark-web site where hackers traded in stolen data. Now, a coordinated takedown and sting involving no fewer than six countries’ agencies had tracked Alpha02 to Thailand. The operation had finally led to this quiet block in Bangkok, to the home of a 26-year-old Canadian named Alexandre Cazes.
The 10 Biggest Dark Web Markets In 2025 – Updated List & Security Insights
That has them questioning Dream Market, a dark web marketplace that’s been in business since 2013 and benefitted from the shutdown of rivals. A recent study by the University of Manchester and think tank Rand Europe found 811 arms-related listings on just 12 dark web marketplaces. The researchers found nearly 60% of the weapons came from the US and most of the sales were headed to Europe. Worryingly, one gun bought on a cryptomarket was used in a terrorist attack in Munich in 2016. The undercover operation resulted in the police obtaining the usernames and passwords of “thousands of buyers and sellers of illicit commodities,” which are now the subject of follow-up investigations.
Lookback: AlphaBay Market And Operation Bayonet Takedown
Quality beats quantity here—their listings aren’t massive, but they’re solid. The site looks sharp, and vendor profiles are packed with ratings and reviews. They’ve got forums where people actually talk, which builds trust—kinda like the Telegram vibe.
AlphaBay, The Largest Online ‘Dark Market,’ Shut Down
The site’s dead simple to use, and vendors leave feedback that’s actually helpful. I’ve noticed they’re big on local vibes—vendors tweak their stock for where you’re at. Telegram’s creeping into the darknet scene—not full markets, but vendor channels. I’ve stumbled on groups pushing everything from scripts to gear, often linking back to spots like Tor2door. Bitcoin’s blockchain is too leaky these days, and markets like Archetyp going Monero-only prove it.
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He burst through the door there and found a pair of young foreigners asleep in a guest bedroom—unexpected guests of Cazes’ visiting from Quebec. Another agent, a younger, compact man with an athletic build who went by M, had emerged from Pong and Guzman’s car, where he had been hiding in the back seat. At the exact moment of that handoff, Cazes looked down the street, away from his home. He saw another police officer—the electrician, now wearing a police vest—sprinting straight toward him.
- This massive influx of users was not just a fleeting moment; it demonstrated a sustained engagement that was carefully fostered through a combination of user-friendly navigation and a robust reputation system.
- At the center of the long table was a conference phone connected to both the Thai team on the ground and another team of agents in Lithuania, tasked with imaging the AlphaBay server—taking a snapshot of its contents and then, after Cazes’ arrest, pulling it offline.
- “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”.
- During another late-night visit, this one on July 11, six days after his arrest, Sanchez remembers Cazes informing her, in a kind of deadpan, that he planned to escape—that a helicopter gunship was coming to break him out.
- It’s been a long time since someone dominated the darknet trading industry to the extent AlphaBay did.
- But the anonymous market for addictive drugs and other contraband isn’t slackening, says Christin, and so neither will the dark web’s brisk business.
It locks your messages so only the right person can read them—super handy when you’re dealing with sensitive stuff on the dark web. Take control of your digital security with an exclusive demo of our powerful threat management platform. Yet, it wouldn’t be the AlphaBay we know and respect if it didn’t offer a variety of its own unique solutions. Be part of something bigger, something new, something beneficial to the entire DNM scene, something which comes once in a generation and makes a core change to how people buy and sell in a private, secure and anonymous way. It has a bidding feature, with new batches of stolen data being frequently added.
In 2024, the platform grew significantly in popularity, partly because of its strategic acquisition of users from a number of recently shut-down marketplaces, such as AlphaBay and Incognito Market, which had recently closed their doors. One year into its reemergence, AlphaBay has become one of the largest illicit marketplaces on the darknet—and has plans to innovate. For Grant Rabenn, the Fresno-based prosecutor, it was clear that Alpha02 was now the most wanted man on the dark web; Rabenn compared his notoriety among digital crime investigators to that of Osama bin Laden. AlphaBay and Alpha02 were invoked at every law enforcement conference on cybercrime, every interagency meeting, every training event, Rabenn says.
DOJ Announces Today The Takedown Of Alphabay, The Largest Online ‘Dark Market’
- AlphaBay was a prominent online marketplace in the deep web, operating primarily on the dark web and facilitating the exchange of illicit goods and services.
- Our analysts will continue to follow this market’s presence and reputation on the darknet, and provide further updates as this story unfolds.
- The top left of the Excel spreadsheet displayed an image of the Hansa logo, a stylized Viking ship.
- AlphaBay’s servers were seized with the help of authorities in Thailand, Lithuania, Canada, the United Kingdom and France.
This solution focuses on identifying stolen data, brand misuse, and potential threats before they can cause significant harm. With Brandefense, businesses gain early visibility into risks that may otherwise remain undetected until it’s too late. AlphaBay was relaunched by DeSnake in August 2021 with a new design but with the same admin as before and is once again planning to become the biggest darknet market in history. Believe it or not, some dark web marketplaces have pretty advanced systems for building trust. Sellers often need to pay a deposit to prove they’re serious, and they build their reputation through positive reviews. One of the most common is the exit scam, where a marketplace suddenly disappears and takes everyone’s money with it.
Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Alexandre Cazes and his wife’s assets located throughout the world, including in Thailand, Cyprus, Lichtenstein, and Antigua & Barbuda. There were also at least half a dozen moderators that helped administer the market and its discussion forum, moderated disputes between buyers and vendors, and promoted the market on Reddit (prior to the shutdown of the DNM subreddit). The indictment from 2017 listed them individually by their monikers and many have been arrested. A Canadian market established in 2021, WTN offers over 9,000 products, including narcotics, fake goods, and digital services.
