ASAP Market, currently the largest trading marketplace on the dark web, has officially announced its retirement and will be shutting down its website soon

"ODN" has been following the development of the top domestic and international dark web marketplaces. Recently, ASAP Market, currently the largest dark web marketplace in the entire dark web in terms of duration of operation, number of items on the shelves, and possible total sales, has officially announced its retirement and the imminent closure of the site on the Dread dark web forum.

The ASAP Market is a nearly four-year-old dark web marketplace that originally opened in March 2020 as the ASEAN Market, and has been slowly emerging over the years, quickly taking the number one spot on the dark web after the relaunch of the AlphaBay marketplace shut down in February of this year.

With over 120,000 listings of items for sale, the ASAP Market loads quickly, is full of interesting features, is known for its ability to respond to support tickets (customer service), and allows direct payment for any item. It also allows visitors to browse items on the marketplace before logging in. All these things innovative features make it very popular among the dark web marketplace community.

On the evening of July 11th, LeChacal, the administrator of ASAP Market, posted an announcement on Dread saying "Its time for the goodbyes!!! ASAP Market is planning a retirement."

In that announcement, LeChacal said "We're closing the market very very soon by giving a month to complete the orders, however don't wait for the entire month, closing date could be earlier not later. Everyone must withdraw their coins within a week or max two weeks.(more precisely within 15 days) A smooth retirement is a very big battle."LeChacal also said "Its a lovely journey and we really don't want to leave you. However, everything has an end. We've been planning for retirement since long time and it was always a tough decision for us. At this time, we've planned a premature retirement for good reasons. We're closing the market very soon. We may come back later but at this time, everyone should finish their ongoing orders. New ordering will be disabled soon. Vendors and buyers should withdraw their coins ASAP."

On the evening of July 12, LeChacal once again posted a locked announcement on Dread confirming the announcement that "PSA: ASAP Market is now retiring."

In the new announcement, LeChacal said, "We wanted to provide an update on our previous post (/post/f7da836db27338d782bc) where we shared our retirement plans. After much thought and lengthy discussion, we have decided to leave the Darknet for good. Retirement is not an easy task, and it comes with a host of challenges. "LeChacal then announced the next step in the departure plan: all marketplace buyers and vendors will be given up to two weeks to fulfill current orders and withdraw (withdraw) their cryptocurrencies. Within a week or at most two weeks, they will efficiently process the closure and ensure the fair withdrawal of tokens from all user account balances. They encourage all marketplace users to log into their accounts and initiate the token withdrawal process.

Several comments under the first retirement announcement post praised the professionalism of ASAP's management, noting that "exit scams" and/or "outright closures" tend to be the norm in the darknet marketplace industry, and that the majority of users seemed to appreciate the tolerance shown by LeChacal. Most users seemed to appreciate the leniency shown by LeChacal. Notably, Dread administrator Paris described his experience with ASAP Market as "a pleasure" and personally wished "[them] all the best in their retirement."

Just a year ago, ASAP Market experienced a panic over a suspected "exit scam", with several users reporting unsuccessful withdrawals, which was later confirmed to have been caused by a persistent DDoS attack on ASAP Market, which was later resolved by the efforts of its administrator, LeChacal.

ASAP Market has banned the placing of new orders based on an announcement message posted on its website's homepage yesterday, which reiterated the 15-day window for BTC and XMR withdrawals and ensured that all disputes will be resolved before going offline. The minimum withdrawal amount has also been reduced for users with low balances. Existing users can log in and access the market as normal, but new user registrations have been disabled.

At the time of the announcement of its closure, ASAP Market had over 123,000 commodity items, and by that particular metric, ASAP Market was undoubtedly one of the largest dark web marketplaces of all time. The dark web community generally views ASAP Market as a competent and mature operation that works closely with buyers and vendors to provide a smooth marketplace experience as well as an excellent user experience.

ASAP Market's V3 address:

http://asap2u4pvplnkzl7ecle45wajojnftja45wvovl3jrvhangeyq67ziid.onion

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