White House Market is a term you have probably never heard of. It is not found on Google. Its vendors don't advertise much. Reddit forums and blogs specializing in tech are the only places that have publicized this website. WHM, however, was for many years the most popular dark web site for illicit drugs and fraudulent credit cards.
White House Market was one of the most trusted and secure dark web markets, despite not reaching the same peak trading volumes as AlphaBay and Silk Road. The platform's dedicated users were shocked when WHM abruptly shut down on October 1.
The site's one-page resignation letter contained few details. It stated that White House Market had met its goal and that the site would now be shutting down according to plan.
The letter stated that everyone should be thanked for their business, trust, support, and for putting decent amounts of money into our pockets. We might come back with a new project in the future, or not, said WHMs lead administrator. His online name is mr_white.
The platform had almost 900,000 active users at the time it was closed. Nearly 326,000 of them were active. It was only accessible via anonymity browsers such as Tor and I2P, just like other dark web marketplaces. White House Market advertised a total of 3,000 vendors. These listings included illegal and prescription drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy and credit card fraud. Also, there were opioids like heroine and oxycodone and hallucinogenic drugs like ketamine, PCP, steroids and methamphetamines.
This final listing is in keeping with the site's theme. It features Walter White (from Breaking Bad) on the banner. This site was not Walter White's fictional operation. It had a global presence with buyers and vendors stationed around the globe, though most transactions were done in English.
The Department of Justice announced on Tuesday the results of Operation Dark HunTora, an international dark web sweep that saw 150 arrests and the seizure of weapons and drugs. According to court documents, only a few dark-net vendor accounts were identified as being sourced from White House Market. It is unknown if WHM or its administrators are currently under criminal investigation.
Although it is not clear how much WHMs founders made from the site's inception in August 2019, they charged a 4 per cent commission for all sales through Monero, an almost untraceable cryptocurrency. Nicolas Christin, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose research is focused on online crime modeling and security economics and cryptocurrency, estimates White House Market generated at least $35,000,000 in sales. This means that the administrator's take-home pay could have reached at least $1.3 Million over the past two year.
Christin estimates that sales could have exceeded $120 million. This would have meant that site administrators would have walked away with almost $5 million.
White House Market was also well-known for its outstanding digital security and reliable customer service. Perhaps ironically, it was also known for its ethics. It did not allow vendors to sell child pornography or offer murder for hire.
