Empire Market

What Happened

Empire Market was the dominant market from 2019–2020, filling the vacuum left by Dream. At its peak it had over 1 million registered users and 60,000+ listings. In late August 2020, the market went offline. Initially users assumed DDoS. After 72 hours, the exit scam became apparent — no announcement, no refunds, no contact. The operators simply vanished with all funds held in escrow. The estimated loss to users ranges from $30M to $90M depending on the source. This remains the largest exit scam ever recorded on a darknet market.

Key Lessons

• Never keep more than 1 transaction worth of funds on a market
• The bigger and older a market, the larger the eventual exit
• DDoS can be used as cover for an exit scam in progress