December 20, 2023 at 09:41AM
German and US authorities, with support from other countries, have shut down Kingdom Market, a dark web platform for illegal activities. The platform allowed users to buy and sell drugs, cybercrime tools, and forged documents using cryptocurrencies. This operation led to the arrest of an administrator and has caused disruption within the dark web community.
From the meeting notes, it is clear that there has been a significant law enforcement operation resulting in the seizure of Kingdom Market, a dark web marketplace. The operation involved multiple international authorities, including those from the United States, Switzerland, Moldova, and Ukraine. One of the administrators, Alan Bill, has been arrested in the US.
Kingdom Market operated as an English-speaking marketplace on the dark web and facilitated the sale of drugs, malware, cybercrime services, stolen personal information, and forged documents. The platform utilized cryptocurrencies for transactions, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, and Zcash. The market hosted a large number of items for sale, with a substantial portion originating from Germany. It had tens of thousands of customer accounts and several hundred registered sellers.
Following the seizure, there has been a community response on platforms like Dread, where users express mourning for lost funds and share unofficial information about multiple arrests related to the market’s server infrastructure. However, the German authorities have officially confirmed the law enforcement operation and dispelled rumors of an exit scam.
With Kingdom Market offline and the likelihood of its return being low, competitors such as Drughub and Cypher markets have swiftly sought to attract “Kingdom refugees” to their platforms, demonstrating how quickly market operators take advantage of such incidents.
Overall, the seizure of Kingdom Market has had a significant impact on the dark web marketplace landscape, with implications for both its users and its competitors. Ongoing investigations are aimed at identifying the individuals behind the illegal market, aided by the analysis of the seized server infrastructure.