AlphaBay Is Taking Over the Darknet Market Again

AlphaBay Is Taking Over the Darknet Market Again

Five years after it was taken offline, the resurrected dark web marketplace is making its way back to the top of the online underworld. The largest darknet marketplace (DNM) was shut down in mid-July 2017, but the underground market Alphabay returned in August 2021. During the last year, AlphaBay has managed to once again regain its position as the world’s top DNM. 

The King of the Darknet Market Returns

Last year, a number of DNMs left without a trace, like the world’s largest Monero (XMR) accepting marketplace, the White House, and the DNM Joker’s Stash. This year, a number of darknet marketplaces have been closed. It started with Europol’s takedown of Darkmarket in January. The DNM Monopoly had gone offline. But on Jan. 28, 2022, the DNM researcher Darkdotfail tweeted that "Monopoly Market’s servers were seized" and it was "very likely law enforcement action."

However, AlphaBay (AB) continued to thrive and has managed to become the world’s largest illicit marketplace on the deep web in 2022. The marketplace was also the largest DNM in 2017, but it was seized by an international law enforcement agency on July 13, 2017. At that time, thousands of AB users flocked to both Hansa and Dream.

Thailand police revealed later that Alexandre Cazes, the alleged administrator of Alphabay, was arrested. But on July 18, 2017, Cazes was found dead in a Bangkok prison in the Laksi district. In addition to taking down AB and finding Cazes before he died, the international law enforcement agency operated the DNM Hansa for more than 30 days before taking it down.

Desnake Intends to Open Decentralized Market

49 months later, in August 2021, the popular DNM forum Dread started seeing appearances by the Alphabay co-founder "Desnake." It was once thought that Cazes was Desnake, but now it is assumed that he may have been known as the AB co-founder "Alpha 02." In August 2021, a former AB moderator called "disc0" vouched for Desnake, and reports started to appear about a newly launched AlphaBay.

In August 2022, AB celebrated its first return anniversary after the takedown in 2017 and Cazes’ death. The DNM operates differently than it did back then, as the underground shop is hosted on both Tor and I2P. All connections with Russia are forbidden, including products and services, and fentanyl is completely banned from the new AB marketplace. The new AlphaBay only supports Monero (XMR) transactions.

In November 2022, discussions and threads found on the hidden Dread forum and the clearnet Reddit forum r/darknet revealed that AB is a very popular market. Besides AB, other popular DNMs in late 2022 include Tor2door Market, ASAP Market, Abacus Market, Archetyp, Darkfox Market, and Vice City.

Last April, German law enforcement agencies shut down Russia’s largest DNM, Hydra. After the fall of the original Alphabay in 2017, Russia’s DNM Hydra was a force to be reckoned with over the next few years before law enforcement shut it down. Reports had shown that Hydra’s complex drug delivery system overshadowed Western darknet markets.

The new AB is considered more sophisticated and provides privacy by offering Monero transactions. The feature called Alphaguard claims to "safeguard" wallets in the event of server seizures and I2P connections. Reports published by the threat intelligence blog Flashpoint Team further detail that "Desnake intends to morph AlphaBay into a decentralized market by 2023.