Bitcoin allure has darknet markets jumping to record highs

Of those, including that of Empire Market, one of the largest, longest-running, and most successful darknet markets which stole an estimated $30 million when it went offline in August 2020.

Icarus Market was another darknet marketplace that went offline recently, despite rolling out updates and earning the trust of users.

Why do so many illicit services come online only to scam and disappear in the dark? CipherTrace provides some glimpse as an answer, "Creating a darknet market requires little upfront cost, and the potential rewards can be high-Empire market admins, for example, reportedly profited around $30 million from their exit scam alone, not including the money they made in the two years of their operation."

"Evolution market exited with $12 million in user bitcoin. This results in numerous darknet markets launching every year. According to CipherTrace research, there has been at least one notable darknet market launched every month on average since early 2019.".

The eventual fate of all darknet markets is to be seized, to be hacked, to exit scam, or to voluntarily shut down.

"It's most likely that the majority of darknet markets plan to exit scam from their inception, especially as a plan B if things go sideways," the report noted.

Buyers of drugs, ammunition, and other banned items haven't stopped coming despite the number of darknet "Exit scams," fraud, and other criminal outcomes increasing year-on-year, as public demand for darknet marketplaces is booming as well.

"Numerous darknet markets are launched every year and just as many are constantly exiting, being seized, or otherwise going defunct. Despite this barrage, CipherTrace has noted more dark markets online than ever before," the report stated.

CipherTrace claims to currently monitor over 35 "Active" darknet markets.

It pointed out the growth of Invictus Market, the platform which launched in September, was buoyed by the "Good reputation" of its admins among the darknet community.