Empire Market rose from the ashes of AlphaBay to become one of the largest Western darknet markets. Operating for over two years, it ultimately executed one of the largest exit scams in darknet history, with estimates of $30+ million in stolen funds.
Market Overview
- Launch: January 2018
- Shutdown: August 2020
- Style: AlphaBay clone interface
- Peak Users: 1+ million registered
- Ending: Exit scam ($30M+ estimated)
Empire Market deliberately styled itself as AlphaBay's spiritual successor, using a nearly identical interface. This familiarity helped attract AlphaBay refugees who had avoided Hansa's honeypot.
Rise to Power
Post-Dream Dominance
When Dream Market closed in April 2019, Empire absorbed most of its user base. By mid-2019, it was the undisputed largest Western darknet market.
Features
Familiar UI
AlphaBay-style interface reduced learning curve for users.
Multi-Currency
Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero accepted.
2FA
PGP-based two-factor authentication required.
Multi-Sig
Optional 2-of-3 multisig escrow.
The DDoS Wars
Empire suffered relentless DDoS attacks throughout its operation, creating chronic accessibility issues.
[2019-Q2] Sporadic attacks, hours of downtime
[2019-Q3] Sustained attacks, days offline
[2020-Q1] Constant attacks, multiple mirrors
[2020-Q2] Attack intensity increases
[2020-08] Final outage - never returns
DDoS & Phishing
The constant DDoS attacks led to proliferation of fake mirrors. Users searching for working links often fell victim to phishing sites that stole credentials and funds.
The Exit Scam
In late August 2020, after yet another "DDoS attack," Empire never came back online. Unlike previous outages, this one was final.
Timeline of Exit
Estimated Losses
- Low estimate: $20 million
- High estimate: $40+ million
- Affected: Thousands of vendors and hundreds of thousands of users
- Monero losses: Untraceable
Exit Theories
Why Then?
- DDoS exhaustion: Costs of defending attacks exceeded profits
- Law enforcement pressure: Suspected investigation closing in
- Maximum funds: Post-Dream dominance meant peak escrow
- Perfect cover: DDoS attacks masked the exit as technical failure
Lesson Reinforced
Empire's exit reinforced the darknet axiom: "Never store funds on market." Users who kept minimal balances lost little; those who stored Bitcoin for convenience lost everything.
Aftermath
Empire's exit fragmented the Western darknet market ecosystem:
- Users scattered to WhiteHouse, Versus, and regional markets
- Increased migration to Telegram-based dealing
- Greater adoption of direct vendor deals
- Deepened distrust of centralized platforms
The administrators were never identified or arrested.