Following the demise of the largest darknet marketplace (DNM) in mid-July 2017, the underground market Alphabay returned in August 2021, and during the last year, Alphabay has managed to once again regain its position as the world’s top DNM. Furthermore, Alphabay relentlessly conducted business amid a domino effect of DNMs folding last year and throughout 2022.
After a Rocky Start and Celebrating Its One-Year Anniversary Since the Return, Alphabay Ends the Year as the King of Darknet Markets
Last year, a number of DNMs left without a trace, like the world’s largest monero (XMR) accepting marketplace, White House, and the DNM Joker’s Stash. This year, a number of darknet marketplaces have dealt with casualties and it started with Europol’s takedown of Darkmarket in January. A month prior, 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.”
Through the thick of it all, Alphabay (AB) 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 international law enforcement on July 13, 2017. At that time, thousands of AB users flocked to both Hansa and Dream.
Later, Thailand police revealed that Alexandre Cazes, the alleged administrator of Alphabay, was arrested. Days later, 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, international law enforcement operated the DNM Hansa for more than 30 days before taking it down.
49 months later in Aug. 2021, the popular DNM forum Dread started seeing appearances of the Alphabay co-founder “Desnake.” It was once thought that Cazes was Desnake but now it is assumed he may have been known as the AB co-founder “Alpha02.” In Aug. 2021, a former AB moderator called “disc0” vouched for Desnake, and reports started to appear about a newly launched Alphabay.
In Aug. 2022, AB celebrated its one-year anniversary return after the takedown in 2017 and Cazes’ death. The DNM operates in a different…
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