The administrator of the largest stolen cards/dumps platform on the dark market, Joker’s Stash, announced its closing on February 15, 2021. The site’s operator announced on the Russian dark market forum that the marketplace will close soon and will never open again.
The reason for the closure of the site is not reported, but it may be an operation conducted by law enforcement agencies about the Joker’s Stash. For example, in December last year, it was reported that the FBI managed to remove an external proxy server of the site, as a result of which one of its sections stopped working. Since the seized server is part of the blockchain-based DNS technology, its removal led to the shutdown of not the entire site, but only part of it. It was accessible via domain jstash.bazar but only after the installation of the plugin “Blockchain DNS” for the Firefox browser.
Among other things, recently the volume of dumps published on Joker’s Stash has significantly decreased, and users began to report about the bad quality of the dumps. In October 2020, the shop was also affected by the prolonged absence of its admin, who was hospitalized with COVID-19.
According to some research, the reason for the closure of the trading platform could also be the rapid growth of the bitcoin exchange rate. As noted by experts, Joker’s Stash is one of the first marketplaces using bitcoin as the primary payment method.
The admin of this marketplace is already one of the richest cybercriminals, and the rise of bitcoin’s price could further increase his fortune, bringing enough money to retire.
“We also want to wish all young and mature ones cyber-gangsters not to lose themselves in the pursuit of easy money. Remember, that even all the money in the world will never make you happy and that all the most truly valuable things in this life are free” JokerStash summed up its farewell message.
According to some research, the reason for the closure of the trading platform could also be the rapid growth of the bitcoin exchange rate. As noted by experts, Joker’s Stash is one of the first marketplaces using bitcoin as the primary payment method.
The admin of this marketplace is already one of the richest cybercriminals, and the rise of bitcoin’s price could further increase his fortune, bringing enough money to retire.
“We also want to wish all young and mature ones cyber-gangsters not to lose themselves in the pursuit of easy money. Remember, that even all the money in the world will never make you happy and that all the most truly valuable things in this life are free” JokerStash summed up its farewell message.