We showed that a small fraction of traders is responsible for a large fraction of the trading volume, and by analysing the networks of buyers and sellers, we found different resilience regimes. Shocks tend to induce serious structural changes in the multiseller network, but impact the multibuyer network much less severely. Interestingly, the S2S network shows an intermediate level of resilience, which suggests that the S2S network might play the role of a supply chain network on the dark web.
- Any legal analysis, legislative updates, or other content and links should not be construed as legal or professional advice or a substitute for such advice.
- For example, users will chat in the community on Reddit (social media platform) and publicly condemn them.
- You can also check out this ultimate dark web safety guide to browse safely.
- The Stock Insiders is one of the legit websites and it is an insider trading forum on the dark web.
- We find that 137,667 (i.e., 1.7% out of 7.85 million total) pairs are stable, generating a total trading volume of $1.5 billion (i.e., 5% out of $30 billion total volume).
Is It Illegal To Visit And Use Dark Websites?
The dark web provides an anonymous and unregulated platform for traders to share and sell confidential information, which can then be used to make trades on the stock market. Each marketplace is a star-graph where the central node is the marketplace, and the leaf nodes, i.e., the first-neighbors, are the marketplace users. Therefore, all transactions involving the market have the market either as a source or as a destination node. The horizontal bars represent each market lifetime, i.e., the time when the market becomes active until its closure, and is colored according to the market’s monthly trading volume in USD. In the vertical axis, markets are in the chronological order of their launch date, although for some markets the activity effectively starts after the launch date (e.g., AlphaBay).
We showed that the relationships between users forming stable pairs persist even after the DWM shuts down and are not significantly affected by COVID-19, suggesting overall resilience of stable pairs to external shocks. Similar results hold for the full network, confirming that the formation of U2U pairs is a pervasive phenomenon around DWMs. The total trading volume users sent to DWMs was $3.8 billion, volume received from DWMs was $3.7 billion, while the volume exchanged through U2U pairs reached $30 billion. In Figure S3, we illustrate the number of transactions, trading volume, and lifespan of U2U pairs.
CISOs Brace For Supply Chain Attacks With Proactive Attack Surface Monitoring
It also suggests that there is a variable relationship between volatility and the share of trading activity in dark pools. Specifically, at a sufficiently low level of price volatility – that is, in normal conditions – the proportion of trading in dark pools for a given asset will increase with volatility. But when volatility becomes excessive, trading in dark pools decreases as volatility increases. This also results in a concentration of informed traders on the lit exchange.
Dark trading is a term that refers to the practice of conducting financial transactions outside of public exchanges, in opaque and private venues. These venues, known as dark pools, allow traders to buy and sell securities without revealing the details of their trades to the broader market. The concept of dark trading emerged in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until the advent of electronic trading that it gained significant popularity. Launched in 2020, Cypher Marketplace sells fraudulent documents, stolen credit cards, fake IDs, and malware. Its emphasis on user anonymity and document forgery makes it a core tool for identity fraud.
Insider Trading Tips On The Dark Web For Avoiding Insider Trading Scams
You should be aware that law enforcement agencies may be monitoring the dark web and that visiting certain websites or engaging in illegal activities can result in criminal charges. You can also check out this ultimate dark web safety guide to browse safely. Dark web markets have exploded in scale and reach in 2025, becoming the most dangerous hubs for trading drugs, stolen data, and hacking tools.
Quick Links
One of the most common ways that insider trading on the dark web occurs is through the sale of non-public information about publicly traded companies. This information can include earnings reports, merger and acquisition plans, and other sensitive data that can impact a company’s stock price. The individuals who have access to this information, such as executives, employees, and board members, can sell it to traders on the dark web for a significant profit.
#BHUSA: 1000 DoD Contractors Now Covered By NSA’s Free Cyber Services Program
Importantly, these newly formed stable pairs persist over time and transact for several months even after the closure of the DWM that spurred their formation. Finally, we observe that COVID-19 only had a temporary impact on the evolution of stable U2U pairs, which continued to increase their trading volume throughout 2020. To minimize the risk of exposure, dark web insiders take precautions to cover their tracks and conceal their involvement in illegal activities. This involves laundering the proceeds from insider trading through multiple cryptocurrency wallets and transactions to obscure the funds’ origin and destination.
Similar Content Being Viewed By Others
It hosts over 40,000 listings and offers everything from illicit goods and substances to hacking tools. With an estimated market value of around $15 million, it has grown into a massive hub for cybercriminal activity. A few days ago, officials of the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a statement saying that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities. Prior to this, they also warned users about the risks of Bitcoin transactions. The Chinese government completely bans virtual currency ICOs (initial coin offerings, blockchain terminology) such as Bitcoin, making the trading prospects of cryptocurrencies in the mainstream market confusing. Despite the constraints of circulation, investors still hold expectations for the future development of Bitcoin.
Criminal Prosecution
The starting point for this paper is the identification of U2U networks around DWMs. We analyse 40 DWMs for the time period spanning from June 18, 2011 to January 31, 2021. Our dataset covers all major DWMs that have ever existed, as identified by the European Monitoring Centre, Europol, the World Health Organization, and independent researchers24,25,26. Our analysis focuses on Bitcoin – the most popular cryptocurrency both on DWMs27,28 and in the regulated economy29,30. We focus on two kinds of transactions, occurring (i) between the user and a DWM and (ii) between two users of the same DWM. The result is 40 distinct marketplace ego networks containing user-DWM and U2U transactions, whose typical structure is depicted in Fig.
The investigation uncovered a local criminal organization linked to a large international drug supply operation. Therefore, key actors in the ecosystem of DWMs may play important roles in broader criminal networks. The finding that multisellers and, in specific cases, multibuyers play a central role in connecting the ecosystem, thus contributing to its resilience, may illuminate how to better target future law enforcement operations. In general, by understanding the operation of key players within the DWM ecosystem, our work highlights how appropriate strategies can be designed to counteract the online trade of illicit goods more effectively.
The goods on sale range from stolen credit card data and forged documents to illegal drugs, weapons, malware as a service, and hacking tools. Previous analyses of U2U trading relationships around DWMs include only two studies21,22 based on unstructured21 or semi-structured22 interviews of 17 users of Silk Road and 13 sellers on various DWMs, respectively. Here, we dramatically extend previous work by exploring the collective emergence and structure of U2U pairs. First, we observe that the U2U network, formed by all transactions between pairs of users, has a larger trading volume than DWMs themselves.
Hacktivist obtained the user database of the website, enabling the FBI to trace the true identities of individuals. At present, 185 of them have been successfully charged with criminal charges. The quantity and quality of dark web resource information are superior to those on the surface network. The demand for these resource information makes researchers continue to explore ways to efficiently fill the dark web query interface and obtain dark web resources. The dark web can be accessed through many decentralized anonymous nodes on the network, including Tor or I2P.
However, trading behaviour in DWM closely resembles what is observed on regulated online platforms despite their significant differences in operational and legal nature14. Nevertheless, due to their unregulated nature, DWMs exhibit behaviours not observed in regulated marketplaces. They offer anonymity to their users by using and developing specialized tools. DWMs are accessed through darknet browsers supporting the onion routing protocol (e.g., Tor), which provides anonymous communication connections35. Additionally, transactions are made with cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin, which also provide anonymity to the transaction parties6,36.
