The team behind Incognito, one of the most established darknet markets currently in operation, announced the launch of a new Bitcoin/Monero exchanger service yesterday which they claim offers “unparalleled anonymity” for its users. The service is a transformation of their previous Bitcoin taint analysis service known as Antinalysis, carrying its name along with it.
Differing from similar, KYC-free exchangers, Antinalysis claims to achieve its level of anonymity by generating unique BTC addresses for each exchange and preventing coin splitting to reduce tainted inputs and outputs involved in the exchange. The exchanger makes use of a peer-to-peer (P2P) model in which users post offers to buy or sell preset amounts of BTC in exchange for XMR, which range from 0.01 BTC to 2 BTC. All fees are taken from the XMR side of the exchange as a privacy-enhancing measure.
An introduction message for the new service in the Antinalysis subdread contains the following additional specifications:
“When initiating a BTC to XMR exchange, if your offer goes unmatched, it will automatically be canceled, and the funds will be promptly refunded to your account… We recognize that the current model may not be ideal for everyone, but we firmly believe that a peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange with BTC as the maker is the most effective way to source clean BTC.”
According to Incognito admin pharoah, release of the exchanger was sped up a month earlier than planned after the admin suffered an unexpected loss using a cryptocurrency exchange service that has become popular among the darknet market community. In a Dread forum post titled “Warning: Got fucked by fixedfloat” pharoah relayed the following experience:
“Converted large amounts over fixedfloat over the years, never had an issue. Approximately one hour ago, 1 BTC was sent to their exchange for hot wallet rebalancing. XMR didn’t come out the other end, and turned out to be confiscated.
Their support replied with: “We received word from our exchange partner that your crypto were obtained through illegal proceedings. Please provide proof of funds.”
Careful everyone!” – Incognito admin pharoah on Dread
According to FixedFloat’s terms of service, the exchange reserves the right to “request details about the origin of the funds sent” and even ask for verification of user identity, as well. They claim to reserve this procedure for instances when a “direct link to criminal activity” has been established while also absolving themselves of having to disclose the methods used in establishing such links.
FixedFloat has faced numerous criticisms over the years of its operation, with accusations of selective scamming going back to 2021. “I’m recommending a boycott,” wrote pharoah in a response to his Dread post. “And for anyone concerned, I’ll be covering the loss personally, it won’t be affecting (Incognito’s) wallets,” they clarified.
