BITCOIN SEASON 2: Inside Bitcoin’s Darknet Markets
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re exploring darknet markets, from their history with the Silk Road to how they function today. Bitcoin vs. Monero usage, exit scams, and why these markets look like they're stuck in 2004 despite handling billions in transactions.
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Colin and Charlie dive into the seedy underbelly of cryptocurrency—darknet markets. From the early days of the Farmers Market to the infamous Silk Road and beyond, they explore how these marketplaces function, why they initially struggled without Bitcoin, and the recent shift from Monero back to Bitcoin following exchange delistings. With $2 billion in annual volume yet surprisingly flat growth, they examine the robust review systems, exit scams, and why these sites stubbornly maintain their 2004-era aesthetics.
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Notes:
- Darknet markets processed ~$2-3.5B annually
- Farmers Market (2006) had only 3,000 users
- Silk Road processed $182M from 100,000 users
- Market volume remained flat despite crypto growth
- Monero losing popularity after exchange delistings
- Kraken darknet market: ~$800M volume in 2024
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Timestamps:
00:00 Start
01:50 Chainalysis Darknet Market Report
05:15 Farmer's Market
14:27 After Silk Road
16:11 Arch
16:42 Rise of Monero
23:38 Quality control
29:24 Exit scams
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Transcript
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| 0:49.4 | We are talking about darknet markets today. That's right. We're talking about the dark and |
| 0:54.6 | seedy side of Bitcoin. Well, dark net markets used to be dominated by Manero. Yes, the |
| 1:00.7 | privacy focused cryptocurrency, but since Monaro has been getting delisted from finance recently, |
| 1:06.3 | Bitcoin has taken a front seat in darknet markets. Colin and I will talk about this. |
| 1:11.1 | We'll explain how dark net markets work |
| 1:12.8 | and we'll dive into some of the statistics |
| 1:14.8 | from chain analysis themselves |
| 1:16.2 | about how big or really small dark net markets are. |
| 1:20.4 | Bitcoin Season 2 is brought to by Arch Network, |
| 1:22.8 | the platform building bridgeless apps on Bitcoin. |
| 1:25.7 | More on Arch later. |
| 1:26.7 | Let's kick it off. |
... |
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