Various sources including Mashable reported earlier today that the dark web marketplace could be pulling out an exit scam with the focus set on stealing user funds and Bitcoin.
Rumors emerged that AlphaBay, the world’s largest and most active dark web marketplace, purposely terminated its services and shut down its platform to obtain customer funds and execute an exit scam.
After an abrupt termination of AlphaBay servers and marketplace, users expressed their frustrations and concerns over the security of their funds and requested the AlphaBay moderators to provide an official announcement regarding the status of user funds and the platform.
AlphaBay not an exit scam, moderators respond
Analysts and researchers including Collin Crypto revealed that the AlphaBay moderators responded to the community’s growing criticisms and concerns. In various online communities including Reddit, AlphaBay moderators wrote:
“AlphaBay is currently down. We are waiting for updates from AB admins. Don’t panic and don’t post any more threads telling that AlphaBay is down. Don’t get phished or scammed by fake vendors offering you direct deals. Wait patiently until we hear official updates from the staff rather than speculate.”
More to that, AlphaBay moderators noted that the AlphaBay platform would be restored soon. The platform went through various server updates and security updates in order to keep customer funds and the entire platform safe.
Another AlphaBay moderator wrote:
“I have been in touch with our developers and admins and they are working to restore AlphaBay as soon as possible. As I have said before, during downtimes, there are added risks that you should understand and be weary of.”
In total, AlphaBay experienced a 27-hour downtime. However, both the community and developers of AlphaBay stated that the recovery of the platform and fixes for security flaws would make the AlphaBay platform more resilient to security issues in the future.
Users storing Bitcoin on AlphaBay
As previous Cointelegraph reports emphasized, it is not a viable option to store Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies on centralized and custodial platforms. Although users or vendors on AlphaBay could have been storing Bitcoin on the platform in order to execute deals and process payments more efficiently, for security purposes, it is never safe to store Bitcoin on custodial platforms.
For instance, the July 5 server downtime of AlphaBay could have locked customer funds for an indefinite amount of time. The moderators of AlphaBay did not immediately provide the community with an official announcement until various Reddit threads emerged, criticizing the platform and raising the possibility of an exit scam being executed by AlphaBay.
At the moment, users can be assured that their funds are safe, as said by the moderators of AlphaBay.