This is what I thought was easily on top originally, I don't buy weed anymore but do enjoy hanging out on /d/opsec and the other places seeing what the vibe is. Mr White is amusingly active on forums, it's so incredibly strange when he replies to you randomly with advice. For someone who works in security there's a massive difference between all the wild uninformed speculation you'll see on the clearnet and actual cybercriminals or marketplace kingpins talking about their techniques/tactics. It's an interesting world out there, these folks have serious fucking skin in the game.

Same with hugbunter who seems to have no market affiliation but obviously knows her stuff and can clearly hack a thing or two.

What is /d/? A Chan? Some sort of dark net message board?

Dread. Was spawned after all the darknet subreddits were booted. Address here:

https://dark.fail/

a darknet forum

Yepp, I second WHM. I'm not sure it's the largest, but it seems the most well run. Notably they only accept Monero; I wonder if that will help them stay safe from the police.

It might help some sellers and buyers but most markets get taken down (as far as we know) through unrelated to the currencies used means.

It's not a secret. If the people who wrote this press release are not like outright lying for publicity then they are really really bad at their jobs.