The onion site and the clearnet site were both replaced with a seizure banner that links to the investigative operation's website. The server infrastructure was hosted in a data center in the Netherlands and was also seized. Archetyp was seized by the BKA in June 2025 in an operation called Operation Deep Sentinel. In an interview with German website tarnkappe.info de, the founder of the market stated that they grew up in a deprived area and first encountered drugs at a young age.
European Authorities Disrupt Top Drug Marketplace, Arrest Leader
Volatility has by now become a routine process used by vendors, users and administrators alike after the fall of each dark web market. The influx of previous Archetyp users overwhelmed fragile markets such as Abacus, causing outages and distrust in the platform. Code named Deep Sentinel, the operation was the latest in a series of strikes by European authorities against high-volume dark web markets. When Archetyp, one of the largest and oldest dark web drug markets, was dismantled in June 2025, the authorities framed it as a ‘severe blow’ to European organized crime. TRM’s research further documents how darknet operators attempt to stay ahead of law enforcement through pseudonymous domain registration, rapid rebranding after takedowns, and the laundering of proceeds through high-risk exchanges.
Abacus Market
We added almost every requested function from /b/archetyp/requests and more, we now have signatures, profile images, a search engine, post count, comment count and a lot more. Archetyp accepts only Monero (XMR) for transactions, for safety reasons. Within the the EU, I can see drugs going to be decriminalized, I can not think of a when though. Do you think drugs will be legalized any time soon?
Archetyp Market
Personal data, doxing, data of individual persons is strictly forbidden on the platform. In case of a known vendor, we verify them through existing platforms. We want to hear about their motiviation, their plan and planned listings. How are vendors being selected and tested? Please contact us as soon as possible and use our PGP key. What do you on Archetyp Market do to protect yourself and the users?
What Are Dark Web Marketplaces?
However, it is critical to prioritize your security when utilizing such platforms. By taking Archetyp offline, authorities have dealt a severe blow to drug traffickers in Europe. International cooperation between authorities, financial tracking and digital evidence analysis led to the identification of the people behind Archetyp.
Tips For Using Archetyp Market Mirrors
Dream’s peak traffic was in the hundreds of thousands of listings, though exact numbers weren’t made public. As Europol’s Rob Wainwright noted, users flocked to Hansa expecting refuge, only to be swept up in a trap. When AlphaBay went offline on July 4, many fleeing users migrated to Hansa which was by then run covertly by police.
Public Health And Safety Risks
Combined with encrypted access via the TOR network, the darknet enables nearly invisible marketplaces for drugs, weapons, data, and much more. Archetyp Market facilitated a reported minimum of 250 million euros (about $290 million) in drug transactions over five years, with over 600,000 users, 3,200 vendors, and 17,000 listings. The operation targeted Archetyp Market, a platform with over 600,000 users and transactions totaling at least 250 million euros, underscoring the scale and ongoing challenge of illicit drug sales facilitated by anonymizing technologies. “Between 11 and 13 June, a series of coordinated actions took place across Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, targeting the platform’s administrator, moderators, key vendors, and technical infrastructure. Vendors and users also coordinated their migration onto other platforms through encrypted messaging tools such as XMPP and Tox, both of which had also become fall-back communication channels following the takedown of illegal marketplace AlphaBay in 2017. But as with previous takedowns, although the platform disappeared, its users quickly dispersed and regrouped across rival markets and forums.
Darknet Bible
In contrast, "right" sources tend to emphasize law enforcement success and U.S.-European cooperation, highlighting the logistics of the operation rather than the social aftermath. Authorities seized assets valued at 7.8 million euros, including cryptocurrency and luxury goods, and deployed around 300 officers across multiple countries during the operation. Archetyp Market was one of the few marketplaces allowing the sale of highly potent synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, contributing to broader health threats and overdose risks in Europe and beyond. Authorities from multiple countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States, worked together to investigate and take down a major online criminal marketplace, demonstrating the need for cross-border efforts to combat cyber-enabled crime. Such signatures are intended to confirm that vendors still have access to their accounts and have not been arrested or compromised.
The drug marketplace’s infrastructure was seized in the Netherlands, and police in Germany and Sweden confiscated $9 million from a moderator and six of the platform’s top vendors. In Operation RapTor, which resulted in the largest darknet market takedown to date, law enforcement leveraged blockchain intelligence to trace cryptocurrency transactions, identify key vendor wallets, and link crypto flows to fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine distribution networks operating across darknet platforms. "With this takedown, law enforcement has taken out one of the dark web's longest-running drug markets, cutting off a major supply line for some of the world's most dangerous substances," said Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, deputy executive director of operations at Europol.
- Each archetyp market link undergoes rigorous verification processes to maintain security standards.
- In the shadowy realms of the dark web, few marketplaces have managed to capture the intrigue and attention of its users as effectively as Archetyp Market.
- Around 300 officers were deployed during the takedown, which resulted in the platform being taken offline, several arrests and the seizure of approximately €7.8m ($9m) in assets.
- Archetyp’s UI/UX is one of the best we have seen when it comes to a marketplace.
- These markets use cryptocurrencies and encryption to hide, but law enforcement’s growing technical skills have repeatedly broken them open.
- Other markets will emerge to fill the gap, possibly adopting more sophisticated security measures to avoid detection.
It was in this vacuum that Archetyp emerged, eventually becoming a key landing zone for vendors displaced by earlier market collapses. Following the collapse of illegal dark web marketplace Monopoly Market in late 2023, which was widely suspected to have been the result of law enforcement action, the European dark web community entered a brief period of disarray. It connected thousands of vendors to customers in Europe and beyond, with drugs advertised as product listings, paid for in cryptocurrency and typically delivered through postal networks.
How Archetyp Market Mirrors Work
For those involved in the online drug trade, the announcement marked the abrupt closure of one of the most active and long-standing supply hubs. Crucially, there were no explanations or updates from moderators. In the weeks leading up to its takedown, Archetyp had already started to show signs of trouble. Open-source intelligence gathered in the aftermath shows how the dark web infrastructure responded and what this reveals about its resilience.
National police in Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden deployed a combined 300 officers between June 11 and June 13 to target Archetyp Market’s administrator, moderators, vendors and technical infrastructure. The marketplace has implemented a set of rules and guidelines to ensure user safety and maintain the integrity of the platform. To access onion links, you need the Tor Browser, which can be downloaded from torproject.org. Other markets will emerge to fill the gap, possibly adopting more sophisticated security measures to avoid detection. The darknet ecosystem is highly dynamic, with vendors and buyers quickly migrating to other platforms. However, the void left by Archetyp’s takedown may soon be filled by new or existing marketplaces.
