Crypto-Fueled Darknet’s “Empire Market” Offline Forever?

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Last Updated on 28 August 2020 by CryptoTips.eu

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]
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Just as thugs and criminals started to feel that the Bitcoin frenzy days of the illegal and legendary Silk Road finally had found a successor with the Darknet’s very popular “Empire Market”, the site went offline a few days ago.

Speculation is rife with many believing that the FBI closed it down just as it did with the infamous Silk Road back in 2013. Already copycats are popping up where criminals can trade drugs and other illegal goods in exchange for crypto.

The official spokesperson for the illegal crypto-fueled marketplace, a twitter account called Dark Fail, stated that the site went offline on 22 August during a DDoS Attack.

DarkFail, the Twitter account communicating the illegal site’s dealings, explained:

Empire, the largest darknet cryptomarket is gone. With no explanation from its admins and no announcement from law enforcement, this looks like a devastating exit scam.

The darknet was in a golden age of trust. Expect a rough year of exit scams ahead as trust is rediscovered.

Advertentie.

Ross Ulbricht

Just like its infamous predecessor Silk Road, the Empire Market site was accessible via the TOR network on the Darknet and traded everything illegal, from drugs to chemicals. Payments were made in crypto, giving the financial industry a bad rap in the process.

Whereas Silk Road was founded by the now jailed programmer Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Empire Market was smart enough to stay anonymous.

Ulbricht remains in jail, though many in the crypto sphere have signed petitions for his release. Earlier this year the young programmer gave his technical analysis of the Bitcoin charts for 2020, but was a tad more bearish than reality. In the last few weeks Ulbricht sounded another warning, this time on DeFi, warning many of a possible bubble.

Copycats spring up

Rumors on Reddit state that exit scams have made sure that the managers of the Empire Market site have made off with 30 million dollars in Bitcoin. At it’s height, Empire Market is said to have had 1.3 million visitors.

Some 128,000 subscribers on Reddit’s Darknet forum regularly posted about the popular website.

Meanwhile several copycat sites have already popped up, which the Empire Market spokesman also commented on, stating:

Empire refugees are flocking to Monopoly and White House markets. ToRReZ looks interesting, Yellow Brick is trusted by some but has scammed before.

It is of course a known fact that even though the sites go offline, the clients are still there, lingering in the dark.