Europol Seizes ‘Six Digit Amounts’ of BTC, XMR from Dark Web Marketplace

In a press release issued May 3, 2019, the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol announced that two separate dark web marketplaces have been shut down recently. These marketplaces are infamous for selling contraband and illegal merchandise such as drugs, counterfeit goods, and hacking services in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Wall Street Market

According to another release by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ), the investigation was a two-year collaborative effort involving authorities in the US, Netherlands, and Germany. So far, three German nationals have been charged with being the administrators of one of the marketplaces. Two high profile narcotics suppliers have also reportedly been nabbed by authorities in America. The biggest victory for Europol and the DoJ is the shutdown of the Wall Street Market (WSM) which was believed to be the world’s second-largest online black market of its kind. The other platform, Valhalla Marketplace, was reigned in by Finnish authorities in collaboration with Europol earlier in 2019. Preliminary investigations have revealed that WSM had over 1.15 million users and 5,400 vendors selling everything from drugs to stolen passwords and forged documents. The platform was accessible exclusively through the TOR network and permitted payments in two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). According to the press release, house searches conducted by German police have led to the discovery of €550,000 in cash, 6 digit amounts of BTC and XMR, several vehicles, and electronic devices such as computers and hard drives. The United States DoJ said that the WSM underwent an exit scam last month, wherein the platform’s administrators made away with cryptocurrency owned by users and held in escrow. Investigators believe that $11 million was siphoned in all. A post on the /r/darknet subreddit from April 20, 2019, corroborates the story, with many users complaining about refunds not being processed.

No Slowing Down

Marketplaces on the dark web have been utilizing cryptocurrency as a payment method for several years now, and it is unlikely that these seizures will change that. The first major darknet marketplace shut down in connection with cryptocurrency was the Silk Road in October 2013. At the time, US authorities managed to secure 26,000 BTC from the platform’s wallets. The market’s owner, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced on counts of money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent documents, and drug smuggling. He was sentenced to two life imprisonments, plus forty years. As it stands, digital currencies are the only way to remit money internationally and semi-anonymously — two factors essential for dark web markets. That being said, even with a bulletproof payment infrastructure, the shutdown of Wall Street Market clearly indicates that administrators of such marketplaces are not as invincible as they think. Do you think the German authorities’ seizure of BTC and XMR will further affect the reputation of the crypto market? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.