Icarus Market review: Is it the best newcomer in the industry? That’s what we’re discussing throughout this piece.
There are hundreds if not thousands of such Darknet Marketplaces. Icarus Market is the newest we know of. Due to all the competition, there are certain aspects which make one marketplace better, or worse than the other.
Also, we wouldn’t just be mentioning the features the marketplace offers (or doesn’t offer). Rather, wherever possible, we’d also bring up the features’ benefits and drawbacks. This should help you get a deeper, comparative insight into the marketplace.
Icarus Market- An Eagle’s-eye perspective
If we’ve to explain Icarus Market to you in seconds, here’s how we’ll do it:
- URL: http://tjfr4vfwmq6df4hc.onion/
- Escrow: Yes
- Multisig: No
- Security phrase: Yes.
- of products: 2000+ (approx).
- Wallet-less: No
- BTC: Yes
- XMR: Yes
- Vendor fee: $100.00
- Payment via: Bitcoin / Monero.
Things you may and may not like with Icarus Market:
If you’ve got the least bit of experience with Darknet Markets, here’s everything you may and may not like with Icarus Market.
Things you may like:
- Good security features.
- Traditional, easy to use interface.
- 2 Cryptocurrencies support.
- Transparent with vendor-details.
- Free vending-account available (T&C apply).
Things you may not like:
- Not wallet-less.
- of products is currently pretty low.
- Minimum deposit amounts pre-defined.
- Withdrawal is charged at 1% of the transaction.
Icarus Market review – Our verdict
We’ve fashioned this Icarus Market review in a Q&A format. Answering the most common questions related to the marketplace. While reading through, you’ll notice the answer to most questions is a “yes” and on a positive note.
However, we’ve already mentioned its primary drawbacks in the section above. As of now, it’s just an average marketplace and still has quite a bit of room for improvement.
In our opinion, unless it gets rid of some of its drawbacks it may not go very far in the industry. But then again, it’s not an industry anyone can make prophecies about.
Considering the product-availability, payment modes and security features, we’d say it’s may be a worthy competitor, at least to the newer marketplaces.
But, do go through this Icarus Market review and do form your own opinions.
What does Icarus Market sell?
“Icarus Market” technically doesn’t sell anything. It’s more of a mediator, just like eBay or Amazon on the clearnet.
It simply allows other vendors/individuals to sell on the marketplace. The available products are listed by those other vendors, who may also be from the Icarus Market team, but that rarely is the case.
The market makes its money from the vending-fee, and the per-sale commission that the vendors pay for each sale.
As of now, the following categories of products are available:
*The graph displays the exact number of products in each category, and the colours indicate their % occupancy out of the total product-stock.
- Drugs
- Fraud
- Counterfeit items
- Digital products
- Carded items
- Security & Hosting
- Services etc.
When any of these categories is clicked, they reveal a number of sub-categories. E.g. we expanded the “Drugs” category, and it revealed:
- Cannabis
- Ecstasy
- Opioids
- Tobacco
- Weight-loss
- Paraphernalia
- Stimulants
- And many other sub-categories.
Similarly, all the categories have their own sub-categories. The “type” of products differ for each sub-category as well (obviously).
As of now, “Drugs” and “Digital products” have the most number of listings (products). Their combined listings equal 800+ products, which mathematically is over 80% of the marketplace’s total product-stock.
However, the other categories too aren’t without products. The “Carded items” provides carding guides for Western Union, banks and many other similar platforms.
“Software & Malware” has products such as “Bitcoin stealer”, “password hacker”, “Trojan remover” and other similar products enlisted.
“Security & Hosting” despite sounding noble and legitimate, actually offers cracked VPNs, antivirus software, anonymity guides etc.
I’m pretty sure you’re getting an idea of what’s available over there. Let’s talk of what’s NOT available.
What can’t you find on Icarus Market?
With all the “Drugs” and “Fraud” listings we mentioned earlier in this Icarus Market review, it may seem like the market allows anything and everything to be bought and sold. That isn’t the case.
“Weapons” and “illegal porn” isn’t allowed. Note that porn-related content still is allowed, it may be porn accounts, videos and other such items. Only the porn which is “not legal” is off limits.
How to pay on Icarus Market?
Icarus Market accepts two Cryptocurrencies:
- Bitcoin
- And Monero.
In order to make a payment, a user must first deposit funds to his/her marketplace wallet. The marketplace wallet can be reached by clicking on the balances from the top-right corner, or by clicking on “Balance” from the top-bar.
Once users reach their wallet (for either cryptocurrency), the marketplace will display the minimum accepted deposit for the cryptocurrency. They’ll also be shown the minimum no. of confirmations required for the deposit to go through.
And then finally, by clicking on “Generate Address” a new deposit address can be generated for the cryptocurrency.
Note that Icarus Market deposit addresses aren’t permanent. So one address is capable of receiving funds only once.
Can you sell on Icarus Market?
Yes, you can.
If you make a $100.00 non-refundable deposit. There also are a number of other rules you must follow in order to continue selling on Icarus.
Apart from this $100.00 deposit, we’re sure there’s additional per-sale commission vendors pay, but it hasn’t been mentioned publicly on the marketplace.
Also, you can only make the payment in BTC. XMR payments for the vendor-bond don’t seem to be available.
Does Icarus Market allow withdrawals, and what are the withdrawal policies?
Yes, it does.
Because users will be depositing funds in advance, chances are there may be leftovers from the pervious deposit.
All transactions are charged at 1% of the total amount, so that’s one of the deal-breaking aspects (for some) being mentioned on this Icarus Market review.
Does Icarus Market support PGP and 2-FA?
It most certainly does. In fact, PGP keys are mandatory for vendors. PGP is used to strengthen the account-security via 2-FA, or to encrypt communications with vendors
We however did notice that Icarus Market doesn’t support “Automated encryptions”. In other words, when communicating with vendors you’ll have to manually encrypt the message using the vendors’ PGP-keys.
While manual encryption is certainly a lot more secure, it may be a hindrance for those who don’t possess the know-how to do so.
Does Icarus Market offer Escrow, Finalize-Early and Multisig transactions?
Escrow it does, multisig transactions; not yet.
As for Finalize-Early, it’s totally available and allowed however only for certain vendors. This makes sure that newer vendors do not get F.E hence reducing the scam-opportunities which may otherwise exist.
Is the search-feature on Icarus Market filter-rich?
That it totally is.
In fact, we compared it to quite a few best, well-established darknet markets in the industry and even then Icarus Market’s search-feature seems to offer more filters.
Here’s the panel in its full glory:
As is obvious, it allows setting a minimum price, choosing a vendor-status (trusted/finalize-early), the source of the shipment, the type of the product (digital/physical), stock-status, mode of payment (BTC/XMR) and Escrow-type (regular escrow/ Finalize-early).
Is it the absolute best search-panel in the Darknet industry? That may or may not be true, but it certainly is one of the most filter-rich and advanced panels and that’s not up for debate.
Does Icarus Market offer Mnemonic/Recovery code?
Yes, it does.
As soon as a new user registers, the next page displayed to them is that of their Mnemonic code.
A feature we think Icarus lacks is “Mnemonic-validation”. It simply displays the Mnemonic code, but doesn’t ask users to copy-paste/type the code to prove that they’ve really stored the Mnemonic safely, and/or know its true importance.
It sure makes the signup process faster, but in our opinion the validation would probably be an acceptable and fruitful “waste of time”.
Also, unlike some other marketplaces, the Icarus Market mnemonic code can only be used for account-recovery and not for changing the PIN, 2-FA or anything else.
Is registration mandatory? What is the activation-period? Are invites needed?
Yes, registration is mandatory in order to use Icarus Market. There’s absolutely no “activation-period” unlike some other marketplaces. Accounts are activated instantly upon registration.
No, invites or referrals aren’t needed. Icarus Market is free and open to everyone.
Does Icarus Market have anti-phishing measures in place?
Again, yes it does. (There doesn’t seem to be a lot the marketplace “doesn’t offer”, don’t you agree?)
So, there’s this “security-phrase” that users set during registration.
If this code isn’t displayed every single time, permanently on the user’s dashboard, the time when it’s absent would mean the user is on a phishing clone of Icarus Market.
What are Icarus Market mirrors?
Lastly for this Icarus Market review, let’s talk of available mirrors? Unfortunately, the marketplace has absolutely no additional mirrors. The only legitimate and valid URL is- icarus5l5r3vnn5u.
This has both its benefits and drawbacks. The benefit being, it prevents phishing attempts. You wouldn’t click on a “supposed mirror” and be led to a phishing websites, because there are no mirrors whatsoever.
The drawback is, at times of a DDoS attack the market would come to a standstill.
