Four days after the announcement that ASAP Market would be retiring, a number of major and minor darknet markets have taken to the Dread forum to promote themselves as a new home for former users of ASAP. The largest such market, and new frontrunner in terms of popularity, is Bohemia, who started a new paid promotion on Dread which is stickied at the top of the forum’s homepage area.
Other markets making a push to capture a share of the former ASAP userbase include Incognito, Dark Matter Market, and M00nkey Market who are all offering to waive vendor bond fees to former vendors on the market. Smaller, less-established markets that have indicated they will do the same include SuperMarket and Retro Market.
Advertisement for the M00nkey Market posted in the ASAP subdread.
By most accounts on Dread, Reddit and elsewhere, ASAP appears to be making good on its promises to deliver a graceful exit, with several buyers and vendors reporting that their remaining balances had been successfully withdrawn. ASAP staff did note that they were dealing with an expected surge of withdrawal requests but that all requests were being handled and would be completed in a timely manner. ASAP has also reduced the minimum amount for withdrawal, with some users reporting withdrawing sums as little as $20 worth of crypto.
In addition to withdrawals being slightly delayed due to sudden influx of new requests, some users are also reporting delays in support ticket and dispute processing, which ASAP staff assures will be resolved before the market goes offline in about 25 days.
Several former ASAP vendors have also made posts on Dread to let customers know on which other markets they could now be found.
Launched in March 2020 under the name ASEAN Market, ASAP was the largest English-language darknet market by sales volume, accounting for about 10% of all DNM transactions (Russian-language markets account for roughly 80% with all other English-speaking markets comprising the remaining 10%).
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