Acropolis Market Bites the Dust Without an Exit Scam

When the industry is drug trafficking and “anonymous,” online drug trafficking at that, there will never be a lack of casualties. At least in the foreseeable future. But with drug cryptomarkets, the majority of any damage comes from the marketplace itself. And even though then, the loss is usually only a financial one. When June 30 rolls around, the community will lose yet another market.

Acropolis marketplace admins issued a signed announcement that explained the situation they found themselves in. Unlike many recent marketplace exits—usually exit scams—the Acropolis administrators explained that they found themselves unfit to run the marketplace. “Due to personal reasons we are no longer in a position to continue to provide escrow services.” And again, unlike countless markets that left the scene like a thief in the night, the admins urged users to finish this their business on the site.

And by business, they meant ongoing disputes and unfinalized transactions. Additionally, they encouraged users to withdraw their Bitcoin—an encouragement not heard frequently enough, or at all—during a market’s final hours. “We are sorry to inform you that Acropolis marketplace will be stopping operations 30 days from today, on June 17, 2017,” the admins explained.

“Placing orders on Acropolis marketplace will be disabled effectively in 7 days from today, on May 24, which provides enough time for orders placed in this period to be successfully processed and finalized before June 17, 2017. We encourage every buyer and vendor to process, finalize, resolve disputes and withdraw funds from your accounts before June 17, 2017.”

The Reddit community, where the announcement received the most exposure, showed an overall passiveness about the matter, for the most part. Admins announced the shutdown in the best way possible; few people could find issue with the procedure. However, some disapproved of a singular aspect of the shutdown—even if just in principle. The problematic phrase followed one that offered transitional support to vendors. “We will gladly help and offer support to any vendor in a process of migrating to other marketplaces,” admins announced. This is where the complaints came in: “[the] majority of vendors active on Acropolis market had their vendor bonds waived, so no bonds will be refunded.”

The argument is over whether or not the vendor bond ought to be returned to users. “If it was called a fee,” one user explained, the situation would be slightly different. But bonds carried an understood an intrinsic return value if a vendor stopped selling but kept a good rating, some argued.

“We are proud to say that during our time providing escrow services, we have kept your data uncompromised and safe. Upon market shutdown, all data will be purged from the servers in secure manner. […] We wish everyone the best of luck in their future endeavours. Keep the incentive strong, and maybe time will come when this side of the Internet will become obsolete.”

That being said, users are not out if the woods yet. In the past, some marketplaces scammed over the course of an entire week. But if you have any money tied up in the Acropolis market, withdraw it while you can. And then move over to a new marketplace. Except avoid Outlaw market. They just exit scammed.