Why both markets default to Monero

Bitcoin's transaction graph is fully public. Every transaction, every UTXO, every input-output edge is visible on the ledger and indexed by every commercial blockchain analytics shop currently operating. The clustering algorithms that link addresses to entities have been running for a long time. The cluster graph is good and getting better. A Bitcoin deposit into a darknet-market UTXO can in principle be retrospectively linked to your funding KYC exchange months or years later.

Monero's transaction graph is, in the strict sense, not public. Ring signatures hide the actual sender among a set of decoys. Stealth addresses prevent any external observer from linking a recipient to a known wallet. The protocol-level features prevent the kind of clustering that makes Bitcoin chain analysis work.

This asymmetry is the single most important reason both platforms default to Monero. A buyer who funds in BTC takes on a small but non-zero retroactive risk that does not exist for a buyer who funds in XMR. The on-chain fee differential is small (Monero fees are typically a fraction of a US cent), the wallet UX is comparable (Feather, Cake, official CLI all work), and the platform credit time is comparable. The privacy delta is significant.

What this means in practice

Fund your account in Monero. Both platforms make this the default. Bitcoin is supported on both for legacy migration but actively de-emphasised through UI nudges and slower confirmation thresholds. New buyers should treat Bitcoin support as a feature for someone else.

Wallet picks

Feather Wallet on desktop is the default. Fast, clean UI, supports the things you actually need (subaddresses, view-key import, custom ring size). Cake Wallet on mobile is the same project family. Official Monero CLI is the pick for paranoid setups. All three support deterministic seeds; back up the seed when the wallet generates it and never type it into a browser form.