Bitcoin and the Darknet: This platform abruptly shuts down and disappears with millions

Abacus Market Closes Its Doors

The Bitcoin cryptocurrency is far from being the preferred network for criminals. Indeed, its traceability makes it relatively easy to trace funds. This is why options like Monero (XMR) are much more popular in this area.
However, some illicit platforms continue to offer BTC as a payment method. This is the case, for example, of Abacus Market, presented as “the largest Western darknet marketplace powered by Bitcoin” by the TRM Labs website.

This platform’s activity exploded following the closure of Archetyp Market by Europol in June. The result? This closure triggered an exodus of traders to Abacus Market, which saw its traffic explode, achieving a record monthly volume of $6.3 million in June.

This dazzling success precipitated its downfall, according to the report published by TRM Labs. Because, as this document specifies, “marketplaces that reach the top of the ecosystem often become priority targets for law enforcement.”

An exit scam that could well be linked to its success

In fact, the Abacus Market platform has been offline since the end of June. This also applies to its clearnet mirror, which is also inaccessible. This suggests to TRM Labs that its operators “probably carried out an exit scam, shutting down their operations and disappearing with users’ funds.”

This hypothesis is all the more plausible given that the administrators of this type of platform “who have voluntarily exited, such as those of ASAP Market and Agora Market, or who have carried out exit scams, such as Evolution Market, have managed to escape without being caught by law enforcement.”

However, TRM Labs does not rule out the possibility of a secret seizure by law enforcement. But the fact that the administrator of the dark web discussion forum Dread—in close contact with the Abacus team—has cast doubt on this possibility does not support this view.

In any case, the Abacus Market platform appears to have closed its doors for good. And its administrators may well have taken its users’ funds with them. A case to be continued…