Empire Market
| Launched | 2018 |
|---|---|
| Closed | August 2020 |
| Founder(s) | Unknown administrators |
| Network | Tor hidden service (.onion) |
| Currency | Bitcoin and Monero |
| Est. revenue | Estimated 30 million dollars lost |
| Peak size | One of the largest at the time |
Empire Market became one of the largest darknet markets of the late 2010s and then collapsed in August 2020 in one of the biggest exit scams ever seen.
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History
Launched in 2018, Empire grew as Dream Market wound down, taking over the role of default large market. It marketed itself as secure and stable, offering both Bitcoin and Monero payments and multi-sig escrow.
Operation
In August 2020 Empire suddenly went offline. Vendor and user funds held in escrow — estimated by some at more than 30 million dollars — disappeared with the operators. No seizure was announced, and the administrators have never been identified.
Impact
The collapse hit thousands of vendors and buyers simultaneously and once again demonstrated the danger of centralized escrow, even on markets that advertised multi-sig security.
Legacy
Empire's exit scam accelerated the industry's shift toward Monero-only, smaller and harder-to-raid markets such as White House Market, and toward escrow systems that give vendors control of funds.