Abacus Market Vanishes in Suspected Mega Exit Scam!

Darknet Giant Goes Dark: No Seizure Notice, Just Silence

Hold onto your hats, crypto fans! Abacus Market, the kingpin of Western darknet marketplaces that loved its Bitcoin, has pulled a Houdini and disappeared. Analysts are buzzing that this is a classic exit scam, and it's a big one!

On July 14, TRM Labs dropped the bomb: Abacus's web setup, including that sneaky clearnet mirror, went off the grid in early July. No cops, no seizure notice—just dead air. Could it be a secret takedown by law enforcement? Maybe, but all signs scream that the operators bailed with the cash.

The drama kicked off in late June when users started screaming about not being able to pull out their funds. Abacus's top dog, "Vito," tried to calm the storm on the Dread forum, blaming a flood of new users from the recently torched Archetyp Market and a vicious DDoS attack. But nobody was buying it. Deposits crashed from a cool $230,000 a day to a measly $13,000 by early July.

Since its flashy debut as Alphabet Market in 2021, Abacus was on a roll. A rebrand later that year and a laser focus on the Aussie market, with both Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) on the menu, had them soaring.

Abacus snagged over 70% of the Western DNM market share after Incognito Market got the boot in 2024 and ASAP Market decided to call it quits in 2023. TRM says they raked in between $300 million and $400 million. Not too shabby!

But here's the twist: right after Archetyp got seized in June 2025, Abacus hit a record $6.3 million in monthly volume. The operators might've seen the writing on the wall and decided to cash out before becoming the next target.

It's a move straight out of the DNM playbook. Remember Agora and WhiteHouseMarket? Their operators bailed at the peak and dodged the cuffs. Smart, but shady.

TRM's report paints a wild picture: Western DNMs are more unstable than ever. Vendors and users are jumping ship to encrypted apps or quick-and-dirty replacement markets. Was Abacus really an exit scam or a silent bust? The jury's still out, but one thing's for sure—this is another hit to a scene that's feeling the heat.