Verto and Kimble, the administrators of Evolution Marketplace, have made off with the cryptocurrency sum as Reddit community cries foul The administrators of a top deep-web marketplace have disappeared with over $12m worth of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, it emerged last night, in what appears to have been an “exit scam”.On the website Reddit, a user called NSWGreat, who identified him- or herself as a moderator for the site, raised the first red flag in a post to the DarkNetMarkets subreddit marked “EVOLUTION EXIT SCAM”.Bitcoin made simple – video animation “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’ve been suspicious the past few days,” the user wrote.“I have admin access to see parts of the back end, the admins are preparing to exit scam with all the funds.Not a single withdrawal has gone through in almost a week.” NSWGreat said that he or she personally had $20,000 in Bitcoin currently in escrow at the site, and had confronted Evolution’s administrators – who go by the aliases Verto and Kimble – on Tuesday night.

They then confirmed the scam, according to NSWGreat.“I am so sorry, but Verto and Kimble have fucked us all,” NSWGreat wrote.Less than an hour later, the site had vanished.In an update, NSWGreat said: “Servers have gone down, including back up server for staff.I’m sorry for everyone’s losses, I’m gutted and speechless.I feel so betrayed.” Evolution Marketplace was one of the largest of a number of deep-web sites which grew up after the collapse of the Silk Road, which was shut down after its administrator, Ross Ulbricht – who went by the alias Dread Pirate Roberts – was arrested in 2013.But while Ulbricht’s Silk Road, and many of the sites that followed in its footsteps, had a quixotic if libertarian bent, Evolution was always known as more anarchic and less scrupulous.One vendor on Evolution, speaking anonymously to the Guardian, said they had been on the site for two years.“Now it’s gone; I just lost my career,” they said, adding that they had lost around $5,000 in the scam.

Another vendor, also speaking to the Guardian anonymously, said that they had lost $50,000 worth of Bitcoin and felt “absolutely terrible”.“I have lost everything I had worked for over the past year.That was my retirement fund,” the user said.On Tuesday night, hundreds of users took to Reddit to vent their frustrations at the scam, some even talking about hiring hit-men to murder Verto and Kimble.“After you kill them, fuck them.Fuck them in the ear,” one user wrote.Others were more philosophical.One user – who told the Guardian that they had lost money they had in escrow for a deal on a hacked Xfinity cable account and some “liquid shrooms” – said it “sucks for the people that lost thousands”.“Peeps are screwed,” the user said, “but all part of the game I guess.” The plot thickened as the evening went on.One user who goes by DeepThroat told Verto and Kimble on Reddit that they had 24 hours until he would start giving their identities to other users so that they could take revenge.

DeepThroat posted a screenshot purporting to be from the thieves, offering $5,000 in exchange for silence, which was posted to Reddit with the reply: “Fuck you.” Revealing identities – a process known as “doxxing” – is utterly taboo in deep-web circles.However, DeepThroat implied in posts that the situation called for extreme measures.poland vps bitcoin“Doxxing is forbidden and crossing that line is I don’t even know what.bitcoin cpiBut in this case pressure has to be applied for them to realise they can’t walk away from this unscathed,” DeepThroat wrote.bitcoin javascript miner“If the consensus is for me to fuck off let it be, OK then.bitcoin p2p digital currency

I don’t think it’s fair for people to be robbed like this.” The Guardian has contacted DeepThroat to verify the claims, but has not yet received a response.• This article was amended on 23 March 2015 to remove a statement from a Reddit user that was found to be false.The Beginning And End Of The Evolution Market If you are looking for a Darknet Market then What Has Happened After Evolution Market Evolution Marketplace Has Mysteriously Vanished Evolution Marketplace Gone: Admins Scammed Everybody!bitcoin wallet two factorThere are a lot of really ticked drug dealers as the online black marketplace Evolution Market went poof from the darknet and so too did the community’s bitcoins worth over $12 million.It’s not just drug dealers who are upset as Evolution Market, known as Evo, was reportedly even more hardcore than the Silk Road, selling "more than 15,000 mostly illegal products ranging from weapons to weed, cocaine, and heroin,” as well as stolen credit card numbers, credentials for hacked online accounts and hacking services.The “face,” or public relations person, for the Evolution marketplace took to Reddit to air suspicions that the Evolution admins had “exit scammed;” if true, then that means the Evo admins scammed “thousands of drug dealers” as they took the money and ran.bitcoin investigation cnbc

Not a tiny amount of money, but stole an estimated $12 million worth of bitcoins even though the exact amount is difficult to calculate at this time.Vendors who hawked illegal wares are reportedly out for blood and talking about hiring hit-men; one user gave the Evolution Marketplace admins, who reportedly go by the aliases of “Kimble” and “Verto,” 24 hours to return the stolen bitcoins or die.CryptoCoinNews listed numerous possible scenarios that didn't involve speculating Evo admins are responsible for a huge heist.litecoin owner“The servers were found, the owners were arrested, and the coins now sit in a government-controlled account.1 gh bitcoin miningThe mafia finally figured out who they were and decided to shut them down, and the cost of staying alive was turning over all the coins.bitcoin evolution marketplace

The operators suspected an impending raid, moved the coins to a new address, and will soon return to action.”“Evolution operates on an escrow system, allowing buyers and sellers to more confidently and successfully consummate sales of dodgy goods,” explained Brian Krebs.“But that means the market’s administrators at any given time have direct access to a tempting amount of virtually untraceable currency.”Before Evolution’s servers went down, Reddit user NSWGreat said: I have admin access to see parts of the back end, the admins are preparing to exit scam with all the funds.Not a single withdrawal has gone through in almost a week.Automatic withdrawals has been disabled which is only doing on rare occasions.I am so sorry, but Verto and Kimble have f***ed us all.I have over $20,000 in escrow myself from sales.Verto and Kimble’s bitcoin wallet has allegedly been identified, but there’s no solid proof just yet that it’s theirs.Is anyone surprised that Evolution admins stole bitcoins from Evo users and vendors?

InsideBitcoins asked before adding: One of the main issues in the early years of bitcoin has been users trusting other people with their private keys.Whenever a large number of bitcoins are piled up by one centralized entity, that pile becomes a target for hackers and malicious insiders.It’s bad enough when people are trusting known individuals with their bitcoins, but the idea of essentially trusting an online bank run by anonymous individuals not to steal your money is ridiculous.The situation becomes even more unbelievable when you point out that at least one of the administrators of Evolution was also behind the Tor Carding Forum — a private forum that specialized in financial crime.Forbes estimated that Evolution was a $50 million drug and gun marketplace, before adding, ”The Shiny-Flakes dealership, which German police claimed to have neutered last week in a major bust, had left an ominous message on their vendor page last week too: ‘DO NOT BUY HERE.VENDORS RUN FOR YOUR LIFE’.”The value of Bitcoin is falling in reaction to the alleged Evolution heist.