The largest dark web market for Bitcoin, Abacus, is suspected of a Rug Pull and may be involved in an exit scam.

Abacus Market suddenly went offline, possibly implementing an “Exit Scam” Rug Pull

According to a recent report from TRM Labs, the largest Bitcoin darknet market in the West, Abacus Market, has recently suddenly closed its main site and mirror sites, which are currently completely inaccessible. The agency stated that this move is highly consistent with the typical rug pull pattern of darknet platforms, where platform operators suddenly go offline, shut down the site, and abscond with a large amount of user funds.

The disappearance of Abacus occurred after the "Archetyp Market" was shut down by Europol in June, at which time a large number of users flocked to Abacus, driving its monthly trading volume to a new high of 6.3 million dollars.

Abacus admin attributes withdrawal issues to DDoS attacks

As early as the end of June, users began to report withdrawal difficulties on the platform. Abacus's anonymous administrator “Vito” responded at the time that the issue stemmed from the surge in users and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, attempting to calm market panic.

However, TRM Labs pointed out that this explanation is similar to the behavior of several past Rug Pull markets. Although Abacus tried to stabilize user confidence, the outflow of funds continued to expand rapidly, with daily deposits plunging from $230,000 in June to only $13,000 before July 10.

From Growth Peak to Mysterious Disappearance: The Potential Pressures Behind Abacus

Abacus mainly sells illegal drugs, including stimulants and hallucinogenic drugs, and the platform supports Bitcoin and Monero transactions. After Archetyp Market was seized on June 16, Abacus temporarily became the market's top choice, capturing over 70% of the Western dark web Bitcoin market.

However, TRM Labs analysis points out that "Once the market reaches the top of the dark web ecosystem, it will quickly become the primary target for law enforcement agencies."

Since its establishment, Abacus has processed approximately $100 million in Bitcoin transactions. Considering Monero's anonymity, its actual transaction volume may be between $300 million and $400 million.

Operators may exit under pressure, and there is also a possibility of secret seizure by law enforcement agencies

Analysis suggests that after Archetyp was shut down and enforcement pressure increased sharply, the Abacus team may have lost the willingness to continue operations, prioritizing "self-preservation" over continued profitability.

There are also views that law enforcement agencies may have secretly seized the Abacus platform, but no public announcement has yet been made, and evidence collection is ongoing. However, the administrator of the famous dark web forum Dread is skeptical of this claim and points out that law enforcement announcements often take months to be made public, and such situations have occurred in the past.

The US Continues to Crack Down on Dark Web Crimes: 145 Domains Seized

In the same month that Abacus went offline, US law enforcement continued to crack down on dark web and cryptocurrency-related crimes:

• BidenCash platform (involved in the sale of over 15 million stolen credit cards and identity information) has been shut down, 145 related dark web and traditional internet domains have been closed.
• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) also seized over $24 million in cryptocurrency assets from a Russian suspect who is accused of developing and operating the Qakbot malware.