Abacus Market Goes Dark, Exit Scam Suspected

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Bitcoin Darknet Marketplace Abacus Market Goes Dark, Exit Scam Suspected

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: July 15, 2025

Key Takeaways

Abacus Market shut down suddenly, with investigators suspecting an exit scam;
User withdrawals froze as deposits fell, which mirrored past darknet closures;
Law enforcement action remains possible, but some doubt that authorities are involved.

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Bitcoin Darknet Marketplace Abacus Market Goes Dark, Exit Scam Suspected

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The Bitcoin BTC $92,787.14 -based Western darknet marketplace Abacus Market has gone offline, which raised suspicions of a planned exit.

According to a July 14 report by TRM Labs, the site, its backup portal, and all related servers have been taken down. Investigators noted that the operators likely shut everything down and left with user funds.

The closure comes after Abacus Market saw a surge in activity. When Archetyp Market was taken down in mid-June, many of its buyers and sellers moved to Abacus Market.

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At the end of June, customers began reporting that they were unable to withdraw their money. The site’s administrator, known as "Vito", told users this was due to too many new accounts and a denial-of-service attack.

Despite these claims, deposits to the marketplace began to fall, from around $230,000 a day in June to just $13,000 a day by July. TRM Labs noted that these patterns, withdrawal delays, user panic, and plummeting deposits, have been seen before on darknet sites that later vanished with customer money.

TRM Labs stated that the recent rise in new users may have attracted more attention from authorities. Still, investigators have not ruled out the possibility of a hidden law enforcement operation. In previous cases, authorities have taken over sites but kept them quiet for months to gather evidence.

However, the administrator of Dread, a darknet forum in contact with Abacus staff, has said they doubt police are behind this disappearance.

Recently, TRM Labs reported that around $2.1 billion in crypto has been stolen in the first half of 2025. How? Read the full story.