Darknet market Abacus may be gone for good after BTC move
Online drugs marketplace Abacus Market has either been seized by US authorities or is performing an exit scam on its users following questionable bitcoin (BTC) transfers, according to Darkweb Informer.
The darkweb news blog first highlighted a BTC transfer on June 30 that was reportedly made as Abacus went down with DDOS issues and the “malfunctioning” of link directory Daunt. Informer also noted that Abacus was experiencing problems with deposits failing to appear.
Informer and vxdb, another cybercrime news reporter, both claimed it wasn’t a good look, with Informer speculating that it’s a sign of a “possible exit scam in process.”
Abacus’s issues were addressed on the Reddit-style darkweb forum Dread by Abacus’s CEO, “Vito,” who claimed his site experienced an increase in traffic since another drug site Archetyp was shuttered by Europol.
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The post itself raised suspicion from “HugBunter,” one of the founders of the Dread forum, as they noted the poster hadn’t signed off their message.
HugBunter questioned them on the movement of $320,000 worth of BTC from one hot wallet into a freshly made hot wallet. They also questioned why Vito wouldn’t message on Jabber.
Despite this, HugBunter now claims that they have been in touch with Vito and are working to fix the site. HugBunter said they will post an update if it’s deemed necessary and noted, “If it wasn’t coming back, there wouldn’t be much reason for him to still be here right now.”
Crypto security researcher Chainalysis notes that Abacus is one of the biggest dark web platforms serving Western customers and received $43.3 million on-chain last year.
Its products range from drugs, counterfeit goods, and fraud tools in exchange BTC and the privacy-focused crypto Monero.
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