Nexus Market address changed? Read it like the market means it
Address changes are the single event that produces the most fake links in the category, because the announcement itself becomes bait. Here is how a real change looks, where it is published, and the three current addresses while no change is in effect.
The current set, until a signed announcement says otherwise
nexusb2l7vah4dnacy6sasnuzrayrkzuqzpzbvw3v7hxpypth6pafpqd.onion
nexusma2idee6cndveqpty2oahxvjkzfbfz4qhmo4z5aljxntx3ngvqd.onion
nexusabcdyk5mrsghxmprelubxkkjvcv4vdvhg4zterhhyj7biyzb7ad.onion
Three addresses, all with the nexus prefix, all 56 characters, all opening the same market. No change is in effect for the set above at the time of writing, which is also a statement you should be able to make about any set you are told is current.
Where a real change is announced
Inside the market. That is the first and most important detail. A genuine address change is published on the market itself, in the announcement area, signed with the market's PGP key. The signature is the whole point: the key belongs to the market, the announcement is verifiable by anyone who can reach the market, and a fake announcement would need the key or a convincing lie. If you can read the market today, you can read its announcements, which means the announcement does not need to travel through a stranger's site to reach you.
Everywhere else, secondhand. Forums, chats, link pages, social posts. All of them are carrying the news, and all of them are also carrying whatever else someone wanted to attach to it. The secondhand versions are how changes become phishing waves: the news is real, the link attached to it is not, and the two facts cancel each other out in the reader's head.
The anatomy of a real change
nexus. Same alphabet, letters a to z and digits 2 to 7. The market has no reason to abandon a vanity prefix it spent mining time on, and a change that abandons it is a different market wearing the name.The phishing wave that rides every change
Within hours of a real announcement, the category gets its seasonal crop: pages titled "Nexus Market New Link", clearnet gateways wrapping the real address, and a set of lookalike onions that pass the length check and fail the prefix. They are not random. They are timed, because the announcement is the moment when a large number of people hold a fresh address in their clipboard and a fresh doubt in their head. The wave dies when the doubt dies, which is why the discipline is not "check once" but "check every session", the four checks on the verify page every time you log in, in the address you actually have open.
Your checklist when a change lands
Read the announcement inside the market
Verify the signature against the key you hold. Do not take the change from a screenshot first, even a convincing one.
Run the four checks on every new address
Length, prefix, alphabet, and then the last six characters against the signed text. Copy from the announcement, not from a repost of it.
Open the new address on a fresh identity
Confirm the check screen and the captcha. A real new address shows both, the way the old ones did.
Keep using the old set until the window closes
The overlap is your safety net. Nothing about the old addresses changes when the new ones arrive, and that is the part the fakes cannot afford.
Update your saved copies from the signed source
When the old set finally goes, your saved addresses come from the announcement you verified, not from the page that reminded you to update.