This Icarus Market review will discuss all the products, security measures, shipping details and other features that the marketplace brings with itself.
Also, Icarus Market is probably the newest marketplace we’ve ever reviewed. So, we’d urge you to not compare this Icarus Market review with some other more established marketplaces out there.
No, we aren’t asking you to start using Icarus Market for any legal, or illegal purposes. You may register on the marketplace, take a look around and form your own opinion regarding the marketplace.
Again, we’re neither for nor against the marketplace. We’re just going to be as honest and transparent as is possible throughout this Icarus market review.
We’re answering the following questions throughout this piece:
- Does Icarus Market require registrations?
- What products are and aren’t available on Icarus Market?
- Does Icarus Market accept vendors?
- Is Icarus Market secure?
- What are the payment modes on Icarus Market?
Let’s get started with this Icarus Market review then?
Icarus Market Overview
As mentioned earlier, Icarus Market is a pretty new marketplace. In fact, it was launched on April 5th, 2020. Here are all the primary features that the marketplace is made up of:
- Primary URL: tjfr4vfwmq6df4hc.onion
- Registration: Mandatory.
- Security: 2-FA/PGP/PIN/Secret phrase.
- Vendor Bond: $100.00 (non-refundable).
- Payment: BTC, XMR, LTC
- Products: 25,000+
- F.A.Q: tjfr4vfwmq6df4hc/faq
Icarus Market Alternative Mirror:
- icaruot57k4s2fgrm5tz4dflj4rigvyixny2wygrnermispvasf6icad.onion
- icaruhkb6sndpgz3dwibqserprytvhplize5bfznjyzu7p44xdgptvqd.onion
- icarupok75xbjxqqqyxhgi4grb4lnzjkg52u3sqg7b4hnpyrmtwurhqd.onion
- icarucz2c5b5m24oqip2wjx5qehxr5haecfmgjxxt2otg45tjhlwnrid.onion
Icarus Market Pros and Cons
Pros and cons, well, every darknet market has them, and the same holds true for Icarus Market as well.
Pros:
- Acceptable security features.
- Multi-currency support.
- Traditional, easy-to-use UI.
Cons:
- Minimum deposit is pre-specified.
Icarus Market Review – Final Verdict
The marketplace despite being extremely new to the grounds, doesn’t have a lot of red flags. The number of products has a constant growth, vending-policies aren’t aggressive, and it accepts multiple cryptocurrencies.
The security measures too are almost all there. Sure, the addition of multisig transactions would make things better, but the available regular escrow isn’t all that bad.
It’s not completely perfect though. Not only it’s not wallet-less, but also has specific minimum-deposit requirements.
However, overall, we can only speculate and say that it totally has the potential to be one of the leading names in the industry. But well, only time will tell.
Does Icarus Market require registrations?
That it does. In our opinion, registration helps users manage orders, payments and communications better than those marketplaces which do not require registrations.
And as long as the registrations are free, do not require an invite and are anonymous they’re pretty acceptable as well, just like on Icarus Market.
Here’s the registration form that needs to be filled in order to join Icarus Market:
If you ask me, yes it does ask for more than just a username and password, unlike some other marketplaces.
But then again, the PIN and personal phrase are there only to make the account more secure.
As for the “currency-selection” goes, it’s actually a useful feature not many marketplaces offer. On Icarus Market, we as users can select on registration the currency we’re most familiar with. This currency is then used to display the prices of the products instead of cryptocurrencies.
Note that this currency can’t be used to make payments. It’s only used to display the prices of the products. Payments are still only accepted in cryptocurrencies (scroll down for details). This currency can also be changed later and isn’t permanent.
In a nutshell, the registration is mandatory.
What products are and aren’t available on Icarus Market?
If you’ve been with any other Darknet Market before, you already have had a glimpse of the product-stock on Icarus. It does nothing different or non-traditional.
The products start with the most popular category “Drugs”, followed by “Fraud”, “Digital Products”, “Software and Malware”, “Counterfeit items” etc.
[Outdated info -What’s surprising is, Drugs is NOT the most product-rich category on Icarus (yet). Rather, Digital Products dominate the product-listings as far as quantity goes.]
Update 2020: Drugs is indeed the most heavily-stocked category on the marketplace as of today, followed by “Digital Products”.
Digital Products boast as many as 4469 listings currently, while drugs leads with 14340 listings.
Some other available categories include “Security and hosting”, “Services” etc.
As for the products which “aren’t” allowed, we found only two restrictions in the vendor-application; these being:
- Illegal/Under-age porn.
- Firearms/weapons.
Does Icarus Market accept vendors?
Talking of vendor-application, let’s address the vending rights on Icarus. Well yes, it does accept individual vendors who have the right products for the marketplace.
The general vendor-fee costs $100.00. Note that we termed it a “fee” and not a “bond” as we generally do. That’s because this fee is “non-refundable”.
However, considering their novelty they recently scrapped the fee for established vendors. Vendors can open a ticket, and apply for the free accounts. Obviously, only reputed vendors get these free accounts, for which PGP-authentication is required.
The only restrictions for vendors are that they’d not be allowed to sell the restricted products mentioned earlier. And, they can’t ask for F.E without permission, threaten buyers or Doxx the marketplace.
Is Icarus Market Secure?
Icarus Market may be new, but the inexperience doesn’t show in its security features. Put simply, the following security features are available:
- Security PIN*
- Secret phrase*
- PGP
*These are set during registration, as shown earlier.
The secret phrase is nothing unique or exclusive per se, however not every marketplace offers this. It’s like an identification-phrase, something known only to you and the marketplace.
Once set, this phrase will always and forever be displayed on a user’s dashboard. This tells them that the marketplace URL is correct, and is not a phishing attempt.
So the security PIN is a 6-digit PIN which is required to make withdrawals, or major changes to the account. E.g. it’s used when enabling/disabling the 2-FA.
The PGP obviously exists. I doubt I’ve ever seen a marketplace not support PGP one way or the other. For starters, the PGP is used to encrypt messages and chats on the marketplace, between buyers & vendors, or between buyer/vendors and the marketplace.
It’s mandatory for vendors on Icarus Market to have a PGP key on their profiles. Additionally, the PGP is also optionally used to enable 2-FA on user-profiles.
Another titbit we’d like to add is that on the user-dashboard the marketplace actually shows the activated/not-activated security features. Just a better overall glimpse, and a reminder to strengthen account security.
So let’s just say that there’s nothing “impressive” with the security features, it’s just what most serious marketplaces offer. Bottomline, the marketplace seems pretty secure.
What are the payment modes on Icarus Market?
Again, as mentioned in the earlier sections of this Icarus Market review, payments can only be made in cryptocurrencies. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
As for the exact cryptocurrencies the marketplace accepts, those are:
- Bitcoin
- Monero.
- Litcoin
Bitcoin because it’s arguably the most anonymous and well-established coin. Also because it’s the legacy coin in the Crypto-world.
Monero because it promises to offer equal, if not more anonymity than Bitcoin. Personally, we’d say these two options should more than cater to the needs of most Dark web enthusiasts.
The one unfortunate aspect of Icarus Market is that it’s not a wallet-less marketplace. In other words, it requires advance deposits to a centralized marketplace wallet.
This increases the chances of third-party hacks, marketplace exit-scams, and overall risks.
Also, there are minimum deposit-requirements for each coin. For Bitcoin it’s 0.0007 BTC, and for XMR it’s 0.2 XMR. In the real-world however these limits don’t make a lot of difference. There almost is no product available which costs less than the minimum required deposits.
And on the brighter side, it totally allows withdrawals so that’s there.
All in all, I’d say there’s considerable margin for improvement with the marketplace’s deposit policies.
Disclaimer and Security Precautions
This Icarus Market review should be used 100% for educational purposes only.
You (the reader of this article) should under no circumstances buy/sell on Icarus Market, or anywhere else on the dark web..
Doing so will mostly be illegal.
We aren’t supporting/encouraging/endorsing the actual “use” of Icarus Market.
Any and all of your actions on the marketplace will be 100% your own responsibility.
Although, even when accessing the marketplace, you should employ serious security precautions.
Accessing the marketplace isn’t illegal, but, isn’t praised by the law either.
But, if you wish to remain 100% anonymous and secure on the marketplace, do follow the following steps:
Download NordVPN > launch NordVPN and connect to the “onion over VPN” servers > download TOR browser > increase the browser’s security-level to “safest” > close all other running programs > enter the Icarus URL on your Tor browser.
This will ensure just in case you cross line, the govt. or law enforcement agencies can’t track you.
