Following the collapse of Hydra Market last year, darknet drug markets continue to bounce back and adapt. Megan Townsend explores the current state of play in 2023...

The times of the Silk Road and Dread Pirate Roberts could also be behind us, but darknet drug markets appear to be as prevalent as ever. With the collapse of the Russian Hydra marketplace in 2022, we explore the state of darknet drug markets in 2023.

What's the darknet and the way does it work?

The Internet Iceberg

For these much less familiar with the workings of the darknet and its varied marketplaces, permit me to clarify…

For those who image the web in terms of an iceberg, then the surface web, where we're proper now, would form the tip of that iceberg. Accounting for just 4% of your entire web, the floor net is the portion with which people are most acquainted. The floor net encompasses the elements of the net that are accessible by way of search engines like google, resembling google. However, many don’t realise that the web extends far previous this.

One step beneath the surface internet is the deep internet. This a part of the web isn’t accessible by conventional engines like google, and so isn’t picked up by net crawlers. To access pages and data inside the deep internet, users require the right authorisation and credentials.

However, just because a webpage exists within the deep internet doesn’t imply it’s dangerous. A whole lot of harmless items exist within this layer, akin to unpublished weblog posts, archived information tales and articles with paywalls.

Below the deep web is the darknet (or darkish net), which is even tougher to access on account of its unsearchable, encrypted and private nature which affords users full anonymity.

The darknet does have some reputable makes use of including personal communication and the defending of confidential sources. Despite this, the darknet might be better identified for its internet hosting of drug marketplaces, such because the Silk Road, black markets and cyber assault services to call a few. Its very design makes the darknet a hotspot for criminal exercise, and so this has grow to be synonymous with this section of the net.

The Onion Router (TOR)

As it’s inaccessible via the floor web, users require a software identified as the Onion Router (or TOR) to get to the darknet. Originally created by the US Government, TOR is an anonymising browser that allows customers to enter the darknet and blocks their identification. Adding to this layer of safety and anonymity is the usage of cryptocurrency to make transactions on the darknet.

Darknet drug markets

Perhaps one of the effectively-known capabilities of the darknet is its internet hosting of large-scale drug markets. This was no extra visible than with the rise of the Silk Road market in the early 2010s. Founded by Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts), the Silk Road sold a big number of objects, however was an infamous drug market - with medication accounting for 70% of the drugs offered in spring 2013. At its peak, Silk Road was estimated to be worth $34.5m. Silk Road was eventually shut down by the FBI in October 2013, following the arrest of Ross Ulbricht.

More lately, 2022 noticed the fall of one other prominent darknet name. Launched in 2015, the Russian marketplace, Hydra Market, was known for its trade in drugs among other things. The Hydra Market grew to turn out to be one in all the biggest marketplaces on the darknet, accounting for round 80% of darknet activity and amassing 19,000 seller accounts and 17 million prospects. When it comes to drug sales, Hydra Market turned the largest narcotic market among the former international locations of the USSR. Hydra Market met an identical demise to the Silk Road when it was shut down by German police in April 2022.

The state of play in 2023

Following the demise of Hydra Market in 2022, dozens of latest darknet markets emerged - a number of these being darknet drug markets which focused former Hydra prospects and distributors.

In keeping with analysis from numerous security sources, plenty of markets reared their heads as key gamers after Hydra’s shut down, every taking it in flip to steer the market. By the top of its first month in operation, OMG! OMG! Market had already gained round $12.15 million in sales. Similar to Hydra Market, various Russian darknet markets have risen up the rankings, the largest of which appears to be mega darknet market, which received $40m in March alone. That is followed by Blacksprut, with round $20m.

As encryption, anonymity and privacy are central to the design of the darknet and its varied drug markets, up-to-date info on drug traits is tough to return by. Analysis from the World Drug Report 2023 means that whilst the average purchaser is spending more on drug transactions (rising from $a hundred per transaction in 2018 to $500 in 2021), the variety of active consumers and transactions have notably decreased.

Interestingly, the rise of social media as an emerging drug market has also impacted buying trends. Self-reported information means that social media platforms have change into favourable for low-degree transactions of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine, whereas new psychoactive substances are still sold to a greater degree through the darknet.

In the case of who darknet drug markets promote to, there also seems to have been a change of tack. For many marketplaces, the traditional buyer has finally been the top user of the product bought - nevertheless, experts counsel that darknet drug markets are starting to shift towards wholesale. The decline within the variety of active markets, participants and transactions, contrasted with an increase in general darknet gross sales and average transactions indicates that distributors might instead be selling to drug distributors, or could have widened their array of services and products.

So far, 2023 has offered darknet drug markets with a variety of challenges - however, their means to bounce back despite these clearly reveals they won’t be going wherever anytime quickly. The rise of social media for ‘low-level’ drug transactions means that darknet drug markets will proceed to adapt their response, specializing in wholesale drug distributors, reasonably than the end shopper.

This piece was written by Volteface Content and Media Officer Megan Townsend. She is especially fascinated within the reform of drug laws, subcultural drug use and hurt discount initiatives. She additionally has an MA in Criminology from Birmingham City University. Tweets @megant2799.