Dark web marketplace White House announces end to its operations

The dark web marketplace White House Market shuts down its operation, last week its operators announced that they were retiring.

The dark web marketplace White House Market shuts down its operation, the announcement was published on a dread forum. The admin of White House Market, mr white, explained that it has decided to halt the operation because he has reached his goal, likely in terms of profits.

The black marketplace was launched in February 2019, it was one of the few black marketplaces that initially accepted only payment in Monero. It operated both on Tor and i2p networks.

The White House Market focused on narcotics, but it was also offering other illegal products, including malware, payment card data, and weapons.

In September 2020 it becomes the biggest dark web market after Empire’s exit scam and on February 2021 it reached half a million registered users.

“We have reached our goal and now, according to plan, it’s time to for us to retire,” states Mr White. “Thanks everybody for your business, trust, support and of course for placing decent amounts of money in our pockets.  We may come back some time in the future with a different project or we may not. Meanwhile be on the lookout for phishing or copycats, if it’s not signed by us it’s not us.”

The marketplace doesn’t accept new registrations and new listings, anyway, users can still withdraw funds but won’t be able to place new orders.

Below is the full announcement published by Mr White:

“We have reached our goal and now, according to plan, it’s time to for us to retire. Effective immediately user registration and ordering have been disabled, everything else (yes, withdrawals included) is working as usual.

We will keep the market online for a limited time until open orders are finalized, disputes handled and coins withdrawn. We don’t know how long that will take but don’t expect to come back 6 months from now and find the market up.

All market rules are still in effect so users (both buyers and vendors) should not try to take advantage of the situation and scam, the feedback system is still working and will be shared with Recon and other markets.

Because this week’s featured listings and stickies won’t generate any revenue vendors who paid for them will be refunded via their market wallet.

Vendors can now advertise the markets where they operate on their vendor profiles however direct contacts are still disallowed.

For alternative markets check out /d/Superlist on Dread, the ones listed there are established and going strong. Keep in mind any market can disappear at any time and for what ever reason (exit scam, law enforcement operation, hack, technical issue and so on) but markets like Monopoly (true wallet-less, direct deal) and Versus (enforced multisig) greatly minimize damage. You can also give a chance to new markets, we all have to start somewhere.

Thanks everybody for your business, trust, support and of course for placing decent amounts of money in our pockets. We may come back some time in the future with a different project or we may not. Meanwhile be on the lookout for phishing or copycats, if it’s not signed by us it’s not us.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, dark web)

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