White House Market’s decision to close down has since created ripples across dark web marketplaces and forums as users rushed to express their opinion concerning the planned shutdown.
The initial user reactions to the news were all positive in light of the fact that the market’s admin had decided to leave honorably at a time when they had made a lasting mark on the dark web community (See below).
Figure 1: Positive user feedback to news that White House Market is shutting down voluntarily.
Going by the user reactions to the news, it appeared that most people were heartbroken by the decision by White House Market to close shop. Of course, a significantly high number of Dread users applauded the site for not pulling an exit scam like its previous counterparts.
A New Twist
Barely few days after the White House admin announced that the market will be closing under its own volition, negative sentiments from a section of Dread users have already started cropping up.
A user created a thread titled “It appears WHM has shut down for good”, which gathered a lot of negative thoughts about what exactly may be happening with the one-time world’s biggest darknet marketplace.
User /u/walter499 who identified himself a new member of the White House Market mod team raised the alarm on the fact that the market’s admin had disappeared from the internet. According to the user, Mr. White (the admin) had approached him and another person with an offer to become the market’s moderator for the time being.
The situation would take a quick turn for him as he realized that the market did not stay up long enough for 100 percent of all orders to get cleared of escrow and customers to get the goods they ordered from vendors – this created issues with both customers and vendors.
As such, /u/walter499 admitted that he will not be able to help anyone recover their coins from escrow, or give a clear indication about if White House Market will make a return (See screenshot).
Figure 2: A Dread user who identifies himself as a member of the White House Market mod team speaks to the WHM issue.
As a final nail to White House Market’s coffin, Dread’s co-admin confirmed that all the market’s servers had gone offline and that the platform’s admin had deleted their profile. In addition, the Dread admin revealed that all external contacts with the darknet marketplace were offline.
He said, “I'll make it official. WHM is retired. Certainly didn't think it would only be over a week but it seems that is the case. A graceful exit like a new born bird leaving its nest. Quickly to the ground; never to get up again.”
Another user, /u/XanInc, also confirmed that the White House Market admin had deleted his account (See below)
Figure 3: White House Market's admin deleted his account according to this Dread user.
