Bitcoin 70% dark web volume evaporates instantly: Abacus Market suspected of absconding with funds

Abacus, the largest marketplace on the dark web, is suspected of shutting down the site, and tens of thousands of user funds have evaporated, exposing the risk of centralized custody; Law enforcement tracking and decentralized alternatives are the focus of follow-up. Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Dark Web Silk Road: Adhere to the spirit of BTC, unity and decentralization are free) (Background supplement: ChatGPT shocked more than 20 million users to "leak" account secrets for sale on the dark web, OpenAI: under investigation) Just overnight, the entrance to the dark web bitcoin market Abacus became 404, and the BTC and XMR in the hands of tens of thousands of users disappeared. The "whale," which once owned 70 percent of the market and generated more than $6.3 million in monthly transactions, is suspected of performing an exit scam or has quietly ended up under law enforcement pressure. Rise to collapse: the four-year microcosm of the Big Mac Market The cumulative sales of the Abacus Market in the past four years are close to 100 million US dollars, and if Monero is estimated, the total size falls at 3~400 million US dollars. According to reports, after Europol banned the Archetyp Market on June 16, 2025, a large number of buyers and sellers flocked to Abacus, driving up traffic and deposits. However, just 12 days later, users have reported that the average daily deposit of withdrawal failures has plummeted from $230,000 to $13,000, and after the funds are stampede, Abacus is fully offline on July 15, although the official personnel clarified that it was DDOS, but has been fully suspected by users is a typical Exit Scam, because the appearance is very similar to the timeline. Escape from law enforcement Abacus uses a centralized custodial wallet, and the operation team holds all the private keys. When the withdrawal began to "freeze", the administrator Vito announced that he had encountered a DDoS attack in an attempt to quell the FUD; In fact, centralized custody allows the platform to transfer all assets in an instant, and the historical Evolution Market and BlackBank have all ended in volume payments due to the same structural weakness. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs tracked suspicious funding flows and noted in the report: "Faced with a choice between pursuing profit and self-protection..." This sentence points to the high-pressure environment of law enforcement for dark web operators. In June this year, Operation Deep Sentinel, led by Europol, successfully unplugged the Archetyp Market, showing that on-chain analysis combined with offline penetration has become a mainstream means of combating the dark web. However, Monero's strong anonymity and decentralized alternative platform still make the pursuit a protracted battle. Users or migrating decentralized marketplaces After the fall of Abacus, damaged traders are turning to forums such as Dread to find their way, and there may be a vacuum in short-term supply and demand in the market. Discussions on multi-signature custody, peer-to-peer marketplaces and full-chain settlement have heated up again, with the aim of weakening the control of a single operator over funds. In the short term, BTC and XMR prices may fluctuate, and regulators may also use the topic to increase scrutiny of crypto money flows. In the long run, more transparent decentralized custody and increasingly sophisticated law enforcement technology will determine how far the next "Abacus" can go. Abacus' collapse is another reminder that Exit Scam is the norm within a centralized hosting framework, where the struggle between the dark web and law enforcement will continue, and what really reduces risk may be splitting control back into the hands of the users themselves. Related reports Layer2|Wall Street investment bank Bernstein: Arbitrum or will airdrop tokens, ecological potential is huge Bitcoin market value overtakes Amazon, is it far from surpassing Apple? Bitcoin's 66 developers shouted BIP-119 "passed by the end of 2025", how to change the Lightning Network payment and miner ecology? "Bitcoin 70% Dark Web Trading Volume Evaporates Instantly: Abacus Market Suspected Volume Burning" This article was first published in BlockTempo's "Dynamic Trend - The Most Influential Blockchain News Media".