A dark web marketplace, used for drug deals and the sale of other illegal goods and services, became suddenly inaccessible to users this week.
According to Wired, the marketplace, called Evolution, told users it was experiencing technical difficulties over the weekend that caused a halt in Bitcoin withdrawals. On Tuesday evening, however, “both its market and user form went offline, with no opportunity for drug buyers and sellers to pull out the funds they had stored in their Evolution accounts," the article said.
Users claimed that, when Evolution went dark, $12 million in Bitcoin also vanished.
Various reports said that the shutdown does not appear to be law enforcement-related, and some speculate that administrators for the site made off with the virtual currency as a part of an exit scam. Underground buyers and sellers flocked to Evolution, after the FBI shut down Silk Road in 2013.
