White House market has announced its planned shutdown following its decision to retire from conducting dark web business.
In an announcement posted on the Dread forum, the White House market admin revealed that the platform had made the decision to hang their boots after reaching their goal. Effective from the time of the announcement, user registration and ordering was disabled – withdrawals were still permitted at the time of the posting.
In addition, the admin intimated that they will be keeping the market online for a limited time to provide room for market activities to be finalized. This includes completion of the open orders, dispute resolution processes and withdrawals of crypto.
The admin went further to confirm that they have not determined the exact time frame for keeping the market online, but warned users that they should not expect to find the market being operational 6 months from the time of the announcement.
Point to note, some of the most critical functions of the market have prevailed – White House Market rules have been preserved in an effort of preventing misrule among vendors and buyers that may want to exploit the current situation. The platform’s feedback system will still help to keep scammers at bay, and will be shared with Recon and other markets.
White House also pointed out that people will be receiving refunds for featured listings that were made at the time of announcement owing to the fact that they did not generate any revenue.
Vendors have been allowed to post information on their profiles about other markets where they’ll be operating, although the admin asserted that direct contacts are still disallowed pursuant to the platform’s rules.
Finally, the admin thanked everyone for their business, and hinted that White House operators may come up with another dark web project in future. The closing remarks were also used to ask users to beware of phishing attempts and copycats (See below).
Figure 1: The White House admin's announcement on Dread forum.
Dread Users React to the News
Going by the user reactions to the latest news, it appears that most people were heartbroken by the decision by White House Market to close shop. Still, a number of Dread users applauded the site for not pulling an exit scam like its previous counterparts.
User /u/just_no said, “What a great way to end it. Thank you for going out with honor. White House has permanently changed the game and you /u/mr_white have created rapid development in the darknet which outlasts the life of any one market. Best of luck to you and the rest of the White House team. Stay safe out there and enjoy your retirement”.
Another user, /u/idrinkwater, thanked White House Market for not exit scamming users, and expressed his sadness at the closure of such a great dark web site. In the same breath, user /u/AsheYellowTruckPeanut wondered why the admin did not sell the site to a new owner considering the beast features and security that had been invested by the market.
See the screenshots below for more reactions from users:
Figure 2: Dread user expressed sadness over White House Market's closure.
Figure 3: A Dread user requestign to interview the outgoing White House Market admin.
Figure 4: This Dread user comments reflect the great reputation that White House Market gained.
