We will be exploring the top 10 Dark Web markets in this article. From items like drugs, fake ID cards, and hacked bank accounts to more complex offerings like human trafficking, these sites carry all the illegal activities you can think of. Alright, let’s get into the meat of it—the darknet markets that are ruling 2025. I’ve been poking around these places for a while now, from the giants like Abacus to the old-timers like Vice City. This isn’t just a quick list; it’s the full scoop on what they offer, how they keep things tight, and why they’re worth your time—or not.
Abacus Market: Overview And Key Features
Whilst a great many products are sold, drugs dominate the numbers of listings, with the drugs including cannabis, MDMA, modafinil,108109110 LSD, cocaine, and designer drugs. The months and years after Silk Road’s closure were marked by a greatly increased number of shorter-lived markets as well as semi-regular law enforcement takedowns, hacks, scams and voluntary closures. Cuenca’s artisan markets offer a more laid-back shopping experience compared to the bustling Otavalo Market. The city is famous for its colonial charm, and the markets here reflect that with a mix of traditional Ecuadorian crafts and high-end artisanal goods. Cuenca is also home to some of the best-preserved colonial architecture in Ecuador, making it the perfect destination for travelers interested in both culture and shopping. If you’re staying in the capital city of Quito and want to shop for local crafts without venturing too far, the La Mariscal Artisan Market is a fantastic option.
What Are Darknets & Dark Markets?
Darknets and dark markets have propelled the growth of cybercrime by offering a platform for the sale and exchange of malicious tools and services. Cybercriminals use these platforms to traffic in stolen data, execute targeted ransomware attacks, and collaborate on advanced hacking techniques. Nation-state actors, too, leverage darknets for espionage and cyber warfare, capitalizing on the obscurity and untraceability they provide. Dark web markets have exploded in scale and reach in 2025, becoming the most dangerous hubs for trading drugs, stolen data, and hacking tools. These anonymous marketplaces—operating mainly on the Tor network—are now a primary threat vector for businesses and cybersecurity professionals.
When I first moved to Quito, this traditional food market looked like the best place to get a stomach bug. Due to its location outside in a small park, it has a very streetfood feel that attracts hordes of people, especially from Thursday to Saturday. The market is only active in the evenings and you’ll find dishes like guatita (cow stomach stew), blood sausage, empanadas de viento and more.
Security And Anonymity Features
Further afield, Chordeleg Community attracts visitors to meet Panama hat weavers & learn more about the weaving process. Chordeleg artisans are also famous for high-quality silver jewelry, including delicate filigree products. Another colorful and vibrant local indigenous market is held at Guamote, located between Riobamba and Alausi in the central Andean highlands. If Thursday doesn’t fit into your travel itinerary, fear not; there are other excellent indigenous markets in this area, too.
Microsoft Strengthens Security After China-Linked Attacks
To reduce the risk of fraud, many dark markets offer escrow services. In this system, cryptocurrency is held by a trusted third party until the buyer receives the product or service as described. Once the buyer confirms satisfaction, the funds are released to the seller.
It has long been the site of operations for Mexican, Colombian, and European drug trafficking organizations, and Colombian guerrilla groups in its northern border region. All of these criminal networks have benefited from rampant corruption that has contaminated security, justice, government institutions, and the country’s politics. Diverging a bit from the traditional style food market, the newly opened Mercado del Río, located along the Guayas river on the Malecón Simón Bolivar in Guayaquil, is built to feel like a gastro-bar. Mercado del Río offers over 550 food options ranging from Ecuadorian grandma’s cooking (old school traditional) to Japanese-Ecuadorian fusion to 100% Italian. Prices are also varied and you’ll be pleased to find regular cheap food options as in other traditional food markets.
Special Series: Behind Bars, Beyond Control: The Fall Of Ecuador’s Prisons And The Rise Of Its Mafias
You’ll find a market for every occasion in the high altitude city of Quito. Here, we talk about the different Quito markets as well as what to buy in Ecuador. These groups work with both Ecuadorian and international drug traffickers. Ecuador is home to several prison mafias and drug trafficking gangs that have vastly grown in sophistication and size in recent years.
Deep Dive Into Darknet Markets Of 2025
Ecuador’s largest gangs ballooned by feeding off cocaine profits. Chief among these was the Choneros gang, a major service provider for transnational drug trafficking networks. But after the murder of the group’s leader in 2020, the Choneros splintered into warring factions and came under attack by a coalition of smaller groups previously under their control. And so, people are closing their businesses,” Juan Jaramillo, an Ecuadorian security expert and former police commander along the country’s northern border, told InSight Crime. The judicial system is notoriously corrupt and frequently manipulated by organized crime and corrupt elites. In 2023 and 2024, it was a major focus of a series of corruption investigations that embroiled top-level regional and national judicial officials.
Quito To Otavalo
- Unlike Bitcoin, which records every payment on a public ledger, Monero conceals all transaction details by default, which makes them nearly impossible to trace.
- This further complicates monitoring efforts because now you need to search for the related Telegram channels and track activity there and on the marketplace itself.
- This ability of dark web communities to thrive in disruptions reflects how dark web market users have become experts at adapting to risks, managing disruptions and rebuilding quickly.
- In March 2000, an Irish grad student named Ian Clarke created the software application, Freenet.
- Plus, there’s a thorough vetting process for new buyers and sellers to keep the community more secure.
Noboa’s re-election in 2025, though secured with 66 of 151 legislative seats, leaves him without a constitutional majority, complicating efforts to implement reforms. Child homicides have surged 640% since 2019, and over 80,000 Ecuadorians were internally displaced in 2024 alone. As the crisis deepened, Ecuadorians became the second-largest migrant group intercepted in the Darien Gap, a perilous route to the U.S. border. This exodus—combined with the government’s strained capacity to host 500,000 refugees from Venezuela and Colombia—has further destabilized the country’s social and economic fabric. Police seized nearly 10,000 guns across Ecuador last year, according to police data, more than half of them revolvers or pistols, close to double the number of seizures in 2019. The surge of violence has sparked a crackdown on black-market weapons, and Reuters was given a rare look at Ecuador’s bullet-tracing efforts, a key component of its fight against crime.
Shuttered Dark Web Marketplaces
In some cases, established sellers on closed-down markets are welcomed onto new markets as digital “refugees” and have joining fees waived. More often than not, law enforcement is targeting the sellers more than the buyers. Still, it isn’t unheard of for people to be arrested for buying drugs on DNMs. I do not condone the use of DNMs to purchase or sell drugs and other illegal materials online. DNMs are inherently dangerous places and its users risk losing their money, their freedom, and their lives.Are you suffering from drug addiction? Background research tasks included learning from past drug lords, researching legal matters, studying law enforcement agency tactics and obtaining legal representation.
The overall volume of cocaine seizures in Ecuador destined for the United States has fallen dramatically in the past two years, according to data shared with InSight Crime by Ecuadorian police. InSight Crime spoke to over a dozen security experts and police officials to explain what is driving Ecuador’s latest security crisis. Extortion in Ecuador rose by more than 65% between 2022 and November 2023 and by almost 400% since 2021, according to data that Ecuadorian police shared with InSight Crime. The institutional response to the crisis has exacerbated these trends.
Tor, short for “The Onion Router,” routes internet traffic through a global network of volunteer-operated servers to anonymize a user’s online activity. This technology initially had noble intentions, aiming to protect activists, whistleblowers, and individuals in repressive regimes. However, it soon became a double-edged sword as malicious actors began to exploit its capabilities for illicit purposes. Based on our observations from analysis on dark web data using Lunar, we’ve identified the top 7 marketplaces on the dark web in 2025. We developed Lunar to monitor the deep and dark web, including dark web marketplace sites.
