Cypher Darknet Market has solidified itself as a top-tier darknet market offering to users across the world. It’s had phenomenal uptime, and it’s admin and staff are always on point. That is until earlier this month, as users found themselves facing persistent 502 timeout errors, withdrawal issues, and more disturbingly, the market’s lead admin, known as /u/Cypher, has vanished. The last few months have been catastrophic for the crypto space, and it looks like another one bites the dust.
Key Insights
- Around April 12, 2024, Cypher users began experiencing 502 timeout errors, suggesting server overloads or misconfigurations.
- By April 14, all market mirrors went offline temporarily, eliminating access even for Cypher staff and developers.
- Admin Disappearance: /u/Cypher, the head admin, last communicated before April 10. His absence followed reports of delayed withdrawals from vendors.
- The disappearance and ongoing site issues have led to rampant speculation on forums like Dread, concerning an exit scam versus other potential crises.
- Despite the access issues, /u/Codeless confirmed that multiple backend servers is back and operational, reducing the likelihood of law enforcement intervention.
- Exit Scam Speculation: Community figure /u/Codeless argues against the exit scam theory, citing ongoing backend developments and /u/Cypher’s reputation for fairness.
Around the 12th of April 2024, the Cypher community started reporting critical access issues, notably frequent 502 timeout errors, which indicate server overloads or misconfigurations. This problem was compounded on April 14 when the market’s mirrors unexpectedly went offline, making total market access impossible even for its staff and devs. Although the mirrors were later restored, the 502 errors persisted, preventing users from logging in and conducting transactions as usual. Naturally, exit scam rumours and other claims have plagued Dread’s forum as things took to a standstill.
Adding to the market’s issues is the sudden disappearance of /u/Cypher, the site’s head administrator. His last known communication was prior to April 10, around the time vendors started reporting issues with withdrawal delays—problems they expected the admin to resolve quickly. u/Hourglass, a known figure in the Darknet Market world had this to say.
“Cypher is having a lot of issues lately, but one of the more concerning ones is the fact that /u/Cypher is MIA, as seen in the warning banner A in /d/Daunt In addition, you currently get a 502 timeout error when solving endgame. I’d advise everyone to avoid this market until we have some information about what’s actually going on here”
Even one of u/Cypher’s closest partners u/codeless isn’t feeling confident over the issue of making a public service announcement.
The last known communication with u/Cypher comes prior to the 10th of April.
After seeing some vendors reporting missing withdrawals, I sent Cypher a message on 10th April to let him know and thought that would get dealt with quickly but then I didn’t hear anything back.
Obviously, now things have progressed and EndGame is unable to reach the main backend servers but it’s not possible to determine if this is because Tor isn’t running, or they have gone offline. As well as the EndGame cluster still being online, I also know that at least two other servers are still up and running though – so we’re safe from LE being involved.
I don’t think an exit scam is happening because we’ve been busy working on new things recently, I believe /u/Cypher is an honest person and not someone that would scam people, and an exit scam would keep the market up and running for as long as possible.
So at the moment my main concern is that something might have happened to him and I’m hoping that he’s ok. Lets hope he’ll be back soon and if I hear anything then ‘Il let you all know.
Codeless may have caused a stir, but its for good reason. But he’s almost certain that its not a scam but rather something has happened to u/cypher. Whether this is an LE takedown or something more cynical, we might never know. But that hasn’t stopped the Dread community from speculating.
Community Speculations and Responses
Typically, unexplained downtimes and admin silence in darknet markets would lead users to suspect an exit scam. This is a scenario where site operators suddenly take down the site while keeping up appearances, all the while siphoning off as many user funds as possible. However, /u/Codeless, a prominent figure in the Cypher community, argues against this possibility. He believes that the ongoing backend developments and /u/Cypher’s established reputation for fairness suggest other factors at play.
The functioning status of other backend servers, as noted by /u/Codeless, implies that the downtime is may not due to law enforcement intervention. The fact that some servers are still up and running is a positive sign that the market itself hasn’t been seized, but it leaves the reasons for the current issues unclear.
This all comes week after Cypher openned as a refugee for Incognito Vendors after their exit, and u/Codeless explains that Cypher has been making some big moves on the website, so an exis seems very unlikely.
Given the uncertainty:
– Refrain from Deposits
– Stay Updated: We will keep you updated
– Consider Alternatives, for now look to other reputable markets, ensuring they conduct due diligence to avoid scam platforms. We have a list here.
Hey there, I’m a dark web geek who’s been around for the last 8 years. More precisely, I’m livedarknet’s senior content writer who’s been writing about darknet marketplaces, tutorials, and cybersecurity stuff for educational purposes.