Joker’s Stash, a darknet site specializing in the sale of bankcard data, announced its closure. The site brought the owner more than $1 billion in bitcoins. This was reported by cybersecurity specialists Gemini Advisory.
Joker’s Stash launched in 2014 and was considered one of the largest darknet trading platforms. An ardent supporter of bitcoin, the owner of the marketplace has repeatedly stated that he keeps the proceeds in the cryptocurrency.
Activity on the platform has dropped significantly over the past six months. On 16 December 2020, when accessing the marketplace’s website, a notice about the domain’s arrest by the FBI and Interpol appeared. However, the site soon resumed activity.
At the end of October, data marketplace activity was again disrupted. Access to the platform was restored a week later.
On 15 January, the owner announced on the website that he would close the marketplace in a month and „retire to a well-deserved retirement“. Analysts are not ruling out that the decision is due to the recent surge in the price of bitcoin.
Gemini believes that Joker’s Stash going out of business will not affect the shadow economy of banking data, as in the case of Silk Road.
As a reminder, at the end of December, darknet marketplace White House Market stopped supporting the first cryptocurrency and began accepting payments only in Monero (XMR).