Explained
From Silk Road to today, dormant wallets and mixing tools are no longer enough to hide illicit funds onchain, as ZachXBT’s investigations continue to prove.
Alpha Bay News
AlphaBay Market was one of the most popular darknet trading platforms. AlphaBay was operating via online service of the Tor network. The AlphaBay marketplace was launched in 2014 and, for obvious reasons, the founders of the platform had remained unknown until AlphaBay was shut down due to law enforcement action in 2017. There were over 300,000 advertisements for drugs, arms, fake documents, stolen credit cards and other illegal goods and services. Just like other darknet markets, the AlphaBay black market used Bitcoin as an anonymous payment method. However, relative to other darknet markets AlphaBay accepted other cryptocurrencies as well. By the time of AlphaBay’s takedown, the platform’s size was ten times larger than that of its predecessor, Silk Road.
- News
‘Criminals cannot hide behind technology to break the law,’ a US attorney stated.
12963 - News
IMF Chief Christine Lagarde further states the need for crypto market regulation to protect customers and prevent money laundering in an IMF blog post.
21433 - Regulations
Jeff Sessions has called the Dark Web a “big problem” before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
20306 Europol concludes that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Zcash, Monero and Ethereum are increasingly becoming popular among the darkweb, usually associated with criminal activities due to their pseudonymous nature.
14442The police have reportedly seized a total of €400,000, including nearly €100,000 in cash that was discovered hidden behind a spare tire in a garage during the arrest.
11718US government, in cooperation with European authorities, has shut down the infamous dark web market, AlphaBay.
12338Largest mixing service BitMixer shuts down in a matter of days, leaving users both puzzled and curious. Announcements motivated by ethical reasons to stop offering the service despite millions of dollars revenue.
23499Man from Pennsylvania was caught stealing $40 mln worth of Bitcoin.
13090AlphaBay admin bragged about a purchase of a Porsche on the Roosh V forum.
11506Darket phisher claims to have amassed $1 mln worth of Bitcoin in just 14 months
19731EU Report downplays cryptocurrency use among terrorists.
9121Shadow online marketplace AlphaBay is shut down in a sting operation reminiscent of the Silk Road takedown in 2013.
20069Users can rest assured that their funds are safe, as said by the moderators of AlphaBay.
19588Monero appears to have lost its darknet market integrations, and very well may have fallen victim to an exit scam.
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