Cartel Market review: Is it the best dark web market in 2021? Why don’t you have a say after going through this piece?
For now, we’ll just say that the market brings a few unique, never-before features to the industry. Are they enough? We aren’t sure.
Here’s everything we’ll be answering throughout this piece:
- Does Cartel Market require registrations?
- What does Cartel Market sell?
- What’s not sold on Cartel Market?
- Is Cartel Market secure?
- Can you withdraw funds from Cartel Market?
- What is the Cartel Market lottery?
- Does Cartel Market offer an escrow?
- Who can sell on Cartel Market? (And, what’s unique?).
Those should answer everything you wish to know about the market, don’t you agree?
Disclaimer
This Cartel Market review is purely and solely for educational purposes. Visiting the market is not a crime.
However, do not buy/sell/trade on the market. The goods may be illegally acquired or just illegal in general. Do not use illegally acquired funds for trades on the market either.
We do not encourage or support any buying/selling activities on any dark web market. Any and all of your activities will solely and exclusively be your own responsibility.
Cartel Market overview
Before we start, here’s an overview of the market: 
- URL: http://mgybzfrldjn5drzv537skh7kgwgbq45dwha67r4elda4vl7m6qul5xqd.onion/
- Total products: 7134
- Escrow types: Multisig/standard/F.E
- Cryptocurrencies: BTC/XMR
- Security features: 2-FA/ PIN/ login phrase
- Vendor-bond: $500.00
Sounds intriguing? Let’s get started!
Does Cartel Market require registrations?
How else would you organize your orders, funds, notifications and everything else? Obviously is requires registrations.
Sure, I’ve seen probably 2 markets in my entire research career which do not require any registration at all.
But, Cartel Market sure does require registrations. The registration process differs slightly from what’s traditional.
You need to enter a “login ID” and a separate “public username”. The login ID is used to login, while the username is displayed to others on the market. A decent security feature, isn’t it?
Apart from that, you only need a password, a login phrase and a security PIN. No payments, signup-fee, or special/secret invites are required.
What does Cartel Market sell?
I’m almost sure you know what to expect here. If something is illegal, it probably can be found here.
I’ve designed a little something which would tell you how much of which product is available on Cartel Market:
I’ll obviously explain it for the sake of simplicity.
So, “Drugs and chemicals” category has over 4000 products in the category. That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?
Products like Steroids, Dissociatives, Tobacco, Weight Loss, Benzos etc. are available in the category.
If you go to the “Fraud” category, you’ll find accounts, cards, CVV, dumps and personal information. Nearly 1000 listings are available in this category.
The “Guides and Tutorials” category will give you security & anonymity guides, fraud guides, guides on drugs and so on. About 500 items can be found in this category.
There’s also a “counterfeit items” category. It’s not very well-stocked but does have about 100 listings. As the name suggests, it sells counterfeits. They can be of clothes, IDs, notes, electronics etc.
Then there are the digital listings. These are the products which are shipped over the internet (files/documents etc.) It primarily sells game keys, software, e-books etc. 200 or so products are currently listed in the category.
It has this unique (most other darknet markets do not have this) category labelled “other physical products”. Everything else which isn’t a right fit for the categories above is stuffed here. Its currently has 160+ listings. Items include clothing, self defence, appliances, electronics etc.
Maybe a user needs someone with a specific set of skills? Primarily illegal? Those can be found in its “services” section. Currently, it offers services such as carding, social engineering etc.
All in all, it’s safe to say that the market is pretty impressive when it comes to darkweb products.
What’s not sold on Cartel Market?
If you’re reading this Cartel Market review, and you’re new, you probably think you can buy any and everything on Cartel Market. You can’t.
The market doesn’t allow selling of:
- No transfers (Western Union/ PayPal)
- No weapons of any kind.
- No illegal/non-consented porn
- Hitman services too aren’t allowed
Is Cartel Market secure?
It does seem so. It doesn’t offer any “unique” security features as such but does bring a few unique “aspects” to the industry.
Here are the security features available on Cartel Market:
- 2-FA
- PIN
- Login phrase
- Auto-logout timer
For starters, the most common and most secure 2-FA via PGP authentication can obviously be enabled. It adds a secondary layer of protection on top of the password.
The “PIN” too is set during registrations. As is the tradition, it helps enhance security because it’s required when changing password or 2-FA settings. It’s also needed for withdrawals.
The “unique aspect” I mentioned earlier is that this PIN can’t be just changed at a whim. You must request a PIN change and it needs 72 hours before the PIN can actually be changed.
This makes sure that even if you lose your password+ 2FA + PIN, your funds are still secure. You’ll still get the 72-hour period to log in and change your details before someone can even touch your funds.
Did I mention the login phrase? That’s available as well. So, you set a secret phrase during registration. This phrase is shown to you on your dashboard at all times. It simply is a phishing-protection measure.
If you don’t see this phrase after logging in, you used a phishing link and should change your account credentials as soon as possible.
There’s also an “auto logout” timer on the login page. You choose a time-frame after which you’ll need to login again.
Bottomline? It’s as secure as you can expect any darknet market to be.
How can you pay on Cartel Market?
The obvious answer is “Cryptocurrencies”. “Which” cryptocurrencies though? Well, it accepts both Bitcoin and Monero.
What’s unique is, you can manually enable or disable each cryptocurrency. If you disable either, you obviously will only have to use the other available Cryptocurrency.
It’s not a market which allows purchases directly from third-party wallets. Deposits must first be made to the market wallet, these can then be used for purchases.
One deposit address is only valid for 1 transaction. The market requires 3 confirmations before it lets you use the funds.
Each address is valid for 7 days, if unused, it’s discarded and users need to generate a new address for deposits.
Can you withdraw funds from Cartel Market?
After depositing and purchases, you may have some leftovers. Fortunately, that isn’t locked. Yes, you can withdraw funds from your Cartel Market accounts.
The market charges a 0.00017BTC flat withdrawal fee for each withdrawal. I liked the fact that it’s not “percent-based”.
What is the Cartel Market lottery?
This is one of the rarest features that I’m discussing on this Cartel Market review. This isn’t something that’s very common on darknet markets.
It’s basically a “ticket based lottery”. Anyone can purchase tickets, priced at $1.00. These purchase funds make up the “prize pool”.
Every Sunday midnight, one of these tickets is chosen as the winner. 90% of the prize pool goes to the winner’s market wallet, 10% of this is kept as the market fee.
It’s fair, the winners can be transparently verified by others which makes sure that the market or users can’t cheat.
Does Cartel Market offer an escrow?
It wouldn’t be much of a market (worth talking about) without escrow, right? In fact, the market offers:
- The standard escrow: Market holds funds from the buyer for the vendor.
- Finalize-Early: A non-escrow setup where very trustworthy vendors are allowed to receive payments without the escrow, instantly.
- Multisig escrow: This is the most secure, advanced and trustworthy escrow on darknet markets. It locks the funds in an agreement between 3 parties – the buyer/ the seller and the market. Once a deal concludes, 2 of these 3 parties must sign for this transaction to go through.
Who can sell on Cartel Market? (And what’s unique?).
It’s a market that allows anyone to sell on the market. Even if a user doesn’t have any prior darknet vending experience, he/she can sell on Cartel Market.
The user must signup for a normal/buyer account and apply to be a vendor. Note that the account must be blank, as in, without any prior orders as a buyer.
Now, the vendor-fee is set at USD 500.00. for absolutely new vendors.
However, established vendors (those who have 1 year + experience, 1000+ sales and 97%+ positive feedback) on other markets may request to get a free vendor account.
Now, here’s something that’s very unique and a first for us. The market requires that applying vendors must write their username on a piece of “paper” (not digital) next to a large (not small) quantity of whatever they’re trying to sell.
This makes sure that just because someone has $500.00 to invest can’t sign up and scam people. He/she must have the actual products and be able to prove that before getting the vendor account. Obviously, this verification isn’t required for digital vendors.
The vendor-bond too can be paid in either Bitcoin or Monero.
Cartel Market final verdict
So, what do we think of it as a market? It’s impressive, in fact, one of the most impressive markets in existence.
It’s the first market which requires verifiable product-proof from vendors. Also, it implemented that 72-hour wait-period before PIN can be changed. These two factors amp up the market’s security and trust exponentially.
The lottery is something else that’s very rare and a fun feature.
The other features are pretty standard as well, the security features, product-stock, accepted cryptocurrencies are all pretty impressive.
So yes, we’d say the market has a great future if it’s not seized, hacked or exit-scams. Check this Cartel Market review in a few weeks to know more about any future developments.
