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Dark web activities and cryptocurrencies seem to be close allies that you can never separate since they came into being. The two entities are dependent on one another, therefore, cryptocurrency prices are hugely controlled by the Darknet illegal activities.

Down the History

Let’s go down the historic road for you to understand their connections better. Darknet and dark web came into the spotlight as from the 1970s when private networks and high-level privacy started entering the market. Darknet has steadily grown over the years, consequently, leading to the evolution of crime. With drug traffickers and other criminals going to the dark web to offer their products and services, the need for a fast, secure and reliable currency grew. 

The tech industry came up with the blockchain technology, which facilitated the creation of the first major cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. After the digital currency was released in 2009, it was embraced as the default mode of payment by the dark web.

Darknet and Digital Assets

A report by Australian Darknet researchers showed that about 47% of the total Bitcoin transactions are carried out on the dark web. Oh yes! That’s a huge percentage and a major player in the market price of the digital asset.

With law enforcement agencies changing their tactics to arrest the dark web criminals, Bitcoin was found to have less security protection in the transactions. This led to the adoption of other crypto assets like Litecoin and Monero, which offered a more secure way of transactions without tracing back to the recipient and users. This was made possible by the use of stealth addresses.

With the dark web accepting more altcoins due to their reliability, their prices started shooting up like a sky-rocket. Inversely, this made Bitcoin less popular with the dark web, therefore, stagnating its price in comparison with the other altcoins’ market growth.

In the last decade, dark web arrests and fraudulent activities were recorded on the uptrend. Every time that an arrest was made and a crypto asset recovered, their prices become highly volatile as the asset recovered would be in terms of hundreds if not millions worth of coins.

Darknet markets have also been involved in DDOS attacks that left stored crypto assets not in the blockchain circulation for a while. This increased the demand for digital currencies with the public, consequently increasing prices overnight.

It is also conceivable that Darknet markets might be working together with some of the cryptocurrency companies to make their currency more popular, hence greatly influencing different market prices.