RS-2026-090 From Attribution to Annihilation: A Four-Phase Framework for Full-Spectrum Neutralisation of Dark Web Illicit Services and Their Cryptocurrency Infrastructure

Existing approaches to dark web threat actor neutralisation operate in isolation: passive monitoring programmes characterise the threat landscape but cannot penetrate mature operational security; infrastructure seizure operations disrupt service availability but leave financial infrastructure intact, enabling rapid reconstitution; cryptocurrency tracing programmes follow the money but lack the attribution anchor required to act on what they find. No published framework integrates these capabilities into a sequential, gate-controlled engagement pipeline that moves from target acquisition through to financial asset neutralisation under a single authorisation chain.This paper presents the NIGHTFALL Dark Web and Cryptocurrency Takedown Protocol — a four-phase attribution-to-disruption framework developed within the NIGHTFALL Offensive AI Security Framework. The protocol sequences nine specialised tools (detailed in Section 4) across four operational phases: target acquisition and attribution; financial deanonymisation; infrastructure annihilation; and cryptographic asset neutralisation. Each phase is gate-controlled: downstream destructive capability cannot execute without confirmed outputs from upstream attribution phases.The framework addresses three failure modes in current operational practice: the OPSEC ceiling of passive collection, the financial reconstitution problem following infrastructure seizure, and the attribution gap that renders standalone blockchain forensics operationally inert. A complete evidence chain using Merkle-rooted cryptographic integrity, dual-signature verification (Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65), and RFC 3161 timestamping ensures that all engagement outputs are court-admissible under UK National Crime Agency, Europol EC3, and FBI Cyber Division evidence standards.