A small number of online marketplaces have moved toward buyer anonymity by default , but it’s not a broad industry-wide shift. The clearest examples I found are niche or specialized platforms, while many mainstream marketplaces still reveal at least partial buyer identity to sellers for fulfillment, fraud prevention, or compliance.

What seems to be happening

The pattern is less “all marketplaces switched” and more “some platforms now hide buyer identity until the buyer chooses to share it.” That approach is most visible in privacy-focused or high-trust transaction systems, not general consumer marketplaces.

Marketplaces with anonymity features

  • Cryptography-based marketplaces : research prototypes and privacy-preserving systems explicitly hide bidder or buyer identity until later in the transaction flow.
  • Confidential data marketplaces : newer data-trading platforms advertise hidden buyer identity as a core feature.
  • Traditional marketplaces : many still trend the other way, toward more identity and reputation visibility rather than less anonymity.

Mainstream platforms

I did not find evidence that the biggest consumer marketplaces have broadly converted to full buyer anonymity as a standard setting. In fact, recent marketplace coverage still focuses more on anti-fraud controls, bid rules, and safer transactions than on making buyers invisible to sellers.

Which ones have “switched”

Based on what surfaced, the “switch” is happening mostly in specialized marketplaces , not across the whole market:

  • anonymous auction / negotiation systems in research and cryptographic marketplace designs.
  • confidential data marketplaces that promise hidden buyer identity.

Bottom line

So the honest answer is: not many mainstream marketplaces have converted to keeping buyer identity anonymous by default, but a growing subset of privacy-focused marketplaces does offer that model. The broader trend across online marketplaces has been toward more trust, traceability, and fraud prevention, not universal anonymity.

TL;DR: A few niche marketplaces hide buyer identity, but there is no sign of a mass switch across major online marketplaces.