Alleged Alphabay Admin 'Desnake' Claims Darknet Market Has Returned –

In mid-July 2017, the largest darknet marketplace (DNM) Alphabay went dark and customers did not know whether the administrators were arrested by law enforcement or whether it was an exit scam. Not long after the site went dark, law enforcement announced that an organized police task force from various jurisdictions, along with the DNM Hansa, infiltrated Alphabay. Thai police also arrested Alexandre Cazes, the alleged administrator of the Alphabay marketplace. Now, more than four years later, Alphabay (AB) has reportedly returned, as the original AB administrator “Desnake” has allegedly “proven control” of the AB administrators’ PGP key.

The so-called return of Alphabay, new platform unstable, accuracy of Desnake's PGP key questionable

In recent weeks, darknet marketplace (DNM) users, researchers and observers have been discussing the so-called return of the Alphabay (AB) marketplace. The DNM was the largest darknet market in 2017, and prior to the seizure of the publication Deepdotweb, AB was shown to have an approval rating of 96%. When the website went dark in the summer four years ago, Thousands of AB users flocked together to Hansa and Dream DNMs. Hansa users didn't know the market was like this confiscated through international law enforcement.

The Dutch police and prosecutors essentially dismantled and dismantled Hansa in early June operated the DNM, while users flocked to Hansa after AB's crash. During Hansa's operation, law enforcement collected a lot of information about vendors and frequent customers who used the DNM and seized thousands of Bitcoins. Then there was the so-called AB kingpin Alexandre Cazes, who was arrested by the Thai police. Cazes was believed to be or was playing the role of the AB administrator known as “Desnake.” However, Cazes was found dead in his cell after his arrest in Thailand.

Fast forward to today, Hansa is gone and so are the administrators of DNM Dream decided to close down the store. In August 2021, visitors using the Dread forum noticed the appearance of “Desnake”. Desnake also allegedly proved its identity by using the account's historical PGP key. A former AB moderator named “disc0” also reportedly vouched for Desnake. The researchers from darkowl.com published a detailed results report coupled with the alleged return of Desnake and how the user promoted the newly launched Alphabay DNM “with services hosted on both Tor and I2P.”

Darkowl notes that the new AB has been “unstable” since its return, with users experiencing “frequent 503 errors, user registration issues, and login timeouts.” I2P services tied to the new AB are rarely loaded and Darkowl claims that the AB user base is much smaller than what Desnake boasted.

“Desnake claims that at the time of writing, 15,000 user accounts have been created, 450 vendors have been registered, and over 400 listings have been published,” Darkowl’s report states.

Darkowl Report Says New Alphabay Moderators Speak With “Impeccable English,” Deep Web and Tor Researcher Dark.Fail Comments on Alleged Return

Darkowl researchers also suspect that the AB service on Tor may be hosted “alongside the Dread services.” This is because the newly launched AB offers similar DDoS protection and clock captcha services to Dread. The detailed results discovered by Darkowl further reveal that the new AB marketplace is moderated by three people identified as “TheCypriot,” “Tempest,” and “wxmaz.”

“All presenters speak very formally in impeccable English and rave with unbridled passion about the need for a new concept of decentralized marketplaces, the complex trade-offs and benefits of peer-to-peer networks, and the deep desire for a greater sense of community,” Darkowl’s report states. “Desnake’s posts are particularly “wordy,” with detailed long-form posts on Dread and the market’s “About Us” and “FAQ” sections,” the report adds.

In addition to Darkowl's report, the anonymous journalist and researcher is known as "dark.fail" ( @darkdotfail ) tweeted about the return of the so-called Alphabay and warned. “Alphabay, a No. 1 darknet market that was seized by law enforcement four years ago, has recently returned,” dark.fail said on Thursday. "Desnake demonstrated their control over [an] old PGP key, an original site administrator. Many naive people trust it. We'll see how this develops. [Law enforcement] can confiscate PGP private keys like anything else," the researcher added.

AB's rumored return follows the most recent one Retirement in the White House Marketplace Announcement emphasizing that another White House Marketplace will not return in the future. Often, malicious entities create fake DNMs with the names of legendary markets to gain more trust from the community. The White House was a Monero ( XMR )-only DNM accepted, and screenshots show that the new Alphabay also offers Monero acceptance.

Additionally, what if law enforcement (LE) officials use the AB PGP keys to lure unsuspecting victims in a similar manner to how Hansa was seized? There are many examples throughout history that show global LE working undercover to catch bigger fish. In the Hansa case, Dutch LE officers with partners from Germany, Lithuania, the US and Europol infiltrated Hansa from the inside for more than a month and collected information about each participant.

“In total, more than 1,000 Bitcoins were confiscated,” the Dutch public prosecutor’s office said detailed. "On average, 1,000 orders were placed on around 40,000 advertisements per day. The marketplace had 1,765 different sellers. Since Hansa Market took over management, more than 50,000 transactions have been counted, especially for soft and hard drugs."

What do you think about the so-called return of Alphabay and the veracity of the Desnake PGP key? Let us know your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.

Photo credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, New Alphabay, Darkowl Screenshots and Report,