Empire Market, the world’s most popular darknet drug bazaar, has been taken offline under mysterious circumstances. Site owners have allegedly stolen an estimated $30 million (£22.5 million) in Bitcoin from 1 million users and thousands of dealers, who have been locked out for days.

Major UK vendors told VICE News that they have been unable to withdraw funds from Empire since the 22nd of August, even using secret links only they know. “I’m down thirty grand,” one said.

In the past, when police have seized drug markets similar to Empire, site closures are normally accompanied by triumphant takedown notices posted on the website’s homepage. This has not yet happened in Empire’s case, fuelling speculation of an “exit scam”, where site admins suddenly shut down a website and make off with vendors’ and users’ money.

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https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3e533/online-drug-market-empire-disappears-with-dollar30-million-of-users-money