Sheep Marketplace

Sheep Marketplace was an early darknet market that operated on the Tor network from March to December 2013, gaining notoriety when its administrators stole 5,400 BTC (worth ~$6 million at the time) in one of the first major cryptocurrency exit scams. Emerging shortly after Silk Road's initial shutdown, Sheep Marketplace quickly became a popular alternative for illicit drug sales, digital goods, and fraudulent documents. The market was operated by Czech nationals who implemented basic security measures including PGP encryption and Bitcoin escrow, but critical vulnerabilities in their code allowed a vendor to exploit the system and steal the entire Bitcoin reserve. This heist, combined with growing law enforcement pressure following Silk Road's takedown, prompted the administrators to abruptly shut down the marketplace while blaming the theft on 'hackers.' In 2018, two Florida students - Sean Mackert and Nathan Gibson - were convicted of laundering funds from the Sheep Marketplace theft through Coinbase transactions. As of 2025, the original operators remain at large, and any websites claiming to be Sheep Marketplace or its successors are confirmed scams. The case remains a landmark example of early darknet market instability and the risks inherent in centralized cryptocurrency platforms.