Silk Road Successor DarkMarket Closed

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Last Updated on 14 January 2021 by CryptoTips.eu

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / jeroen@cryptotips.eu
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One of the few remaining roadblocks on the road to crypto’s global adoption is the fact that the industry is often times associated with payment for illegal goods. This is mostly because of the fact that the first place where Bitcoin thrived and found an actual use as a means of payment was a website known as the Silk Road.

The by now legendary marketplace that ruled the darknet during the first years of the past decade was a haven for Bitcoin as criminals sought an easy way to transfer funds to each other without having to reveal their identity. In the end, founder and programmer Ross Ulbricht was arrested and the site closed by the FBI.

Anyone associated with the site with sentenced to long and harsh prison terms to serve as an example for others. Large sums of Bitcoin that were once traded on the Silk Road remain missing and the site has become a legend in the annals of the cryptosphere.

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Monopoly and White House

However, multiple copycats have sprung up since, and each time the authorities close one of these down, the titles in the mass media don’t forget to mention how many Bitcoin or privacy coins were used to pay for the various transactions.

Last summer it was Empire Market that got shut down, and commentators said its follower would either be Monopoly, White House or Yellow Brick Road. None of those sites made it though and the apparent winner became DarkMarket, where privacy coin Monero was often used to pay for transactions. Governments are trying to regulate Monero by banning privacy coins.

By 2021, DarkMarket had exploded in size to become the world’s largest illegal marketplace on the dark web and was finally taken offline yesterday by cooperating security forces from Germany, Australia, Denmark, Moldova, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Janet Yellen

Given that worldwide mass media will once again headline that the transactions to purchase goods were done using some 4 650 Bitcoin and 12 800 Monero, crypto will once more be associated with criminal behavior.

With new Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen looking for a reason to call the regulators on the world of crypto in order to secure the US dollar as the world’s financial currency, it would be good for the world of crypto to end any future association with these kind of sites.