The money model: invoices, no deposit, no hot wallet
Almost every DrugHub decision makes more sense once you see the custody model: the market almost never holds your money. It holds keys, listings and escrow state — not a running balance on a server.
Buying: pay the invoice, not a wallet
Checkout generates a per-order Monero invoice. You pay the exact amount from your own wallet; there is no deposit step, no balance to pre-fund, and nothing to “top up”. Because the invoice carries the order identity, partial or overpayments are exceptional cases with their own support articles rather than silent ledger edits. The market's own wallet exists for exactly one thing: refunds.
| Flow | Mechanics | Custody risk |
|---|---|---|
| Order payment | Per-order XMR invoice, exact amount, no deposit | Minimal — no standing balance |
| Commission | 5% standard, buyer-paid; flexible with volume | Price, not risk |
| Vendor payout | Offline batch, ≤24 h SLA, ~18 h average (2026-09-05) | No hot wallet on web servers |
| Network fees | Covered by market under 0.05 XMR; disclosed above (2026-10-01) | Read the line before confirming |
| Refunds | Only use of the market wallet | Bounded by design |
Withdrawing: slow is the feature
Vendor withdrawals settle in offline batches. The SLA is 24 hours; the measured average since September is around 18. Nothing about that pace is technical inability — signing keys staying cold is precisely why a web compromise cannot drain the market. If a pre-2026-09-03 withdrawal lags past 36 hours: one ticket with the order ID and exact error text, not several; duplicates get merged and deprioritised.
The 0.8 XMR review window
New since 2026-10-03: orders above 0.8 XMR may opt into a 2-of-3-style review window covering the first 12 hours after a vendor marks the order shipped. It is optional, and it exists because large single-seller transfers are the classic rug vector — the window forces a second set of eyes onto exactly the moments that hurt most to get wrong.
Third-party rails
External gateways can convert BTC/alts to XMR for checkout, and the market supports that path. This desk notes it without recommending it: every gateway is another custodian, another subpoena target, and another place where the “no hot wallet” logic quietly stops applying to your money.
Wallet guidance belongs elsewhere; the practical DrugHub-side knowledge is in the FAQ (fees, purge policy) and the vendor ledger rules for sellers. Announcement-level money news lives on the wire.