[ASAP Announces Retirement]

An asap administrator has announced that the notorious dark web marketplace is closing down for “retirement” in a few weeks.

ASAP ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

In a post on the dark web forum Dread (below) an administrator of the ASAP market has announced that the marketplace (one of the biggest on the dark web) will soon be closing has urged users to withdraw their coins as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, it is likely that users will simply migrate to similar dark web marketplaces that continue to operate, such as Bohemia and Tor2Door. Some commenters on the post have expressed support for the administrator’s decision and many vendors are already posting to say which markets they are moving to.

[About ASAP]

ABOUT ASAP

Originally launched in March 2020 as ASEAN, before rebranding in October 2020, ASAP is one of the largest dark web marketplaces in terms of number of listings and the number of vendors. Last year alone it had 63.4k listings from 1.2k vendors.

The types of advertisements we observe on ASAP include drugs (predominantly stimulants and cannabis), fraud resources, and credit card details. However, vendors also sell cybercriminal goods and services including stolen login credentials, hacking tutorials, and “hackers for hire”.

The site had a reputation in dark web circles for prioritizing the privacy and security of its users, including a system for identifying scammers and a “DeadDrop” feature with a map for users to collect goods.