AlphaBay Market disappears from the dark web as blockchain records show huge Bitcoin withdrawals
Dark web users fear that AlphaBay Market may have disappeared for good after an unexplained period of downtime. The site -- described as a successor to Silk Road -- is a marketplace for a myriad of illegal wares including drugs and guns, and speculation is rife that the admins may have made off with users' money.
While maintenance-related downtime is not unusual, this time around there has been no word from admins, and suspicions have been further raised after Bitcoin worth around $3.8 million was withdrawn from numerous accounts. Some users are worried that admins may have "pulled an exit scam."
Earlier in the week the main AlphaBay Market website vanished, along with all known mirrors. The discovery of a blockchain record relating to a 1,479.03931709 BTC transaction has only fueled the fires of concern that something untoward is going on.
A thread on Reddit finds users of the site voicing their concern about what may be happening, while others took to Twitter:
Dark web market AlphaBay down; many worried the site has pulled an exit scam. pic.twitter.com/8KoPGBX5Cb
— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) July 5, 2017
That the dark web could be used to pull audacious scams to steal people's money should really not be particularly surprising. For now, it's just a waiting game until the fate of the site -- and people's money -- can be confirmed one way or the other.
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