ONBOARDING · INSIDE THE MARKET
Mars Registration and Onboarding: Account Setup Guide (2026)
An account on Mars is made inside the market over Tor, not on any clearnet page. This walkthrough covers the sign-up order, the recovery phrase you cannot lose, and the deposit trick that catches new users.
Every step below assumes you have already confirmed the Mars onion address against the PGP fingerprint published on the catalog homepage. Registration is not the place to start if that check has not happened yet — a Mars account created on a phishing clone hands the clone your handle, passphrase, and recovery phrase before you ever reach the real market. If you have not verified the address, do that first and treat this page as the walkthrough for what happens once you have.
From the door to a working account
Registration is short, but two moments decide whether the account is yours alone: the passphrase you set and the recovery phrase you save. The diagram marks where each one happens.
These three moments happen in a single sitting for most people, but nothing forces that pace. Take the time the passphrase and mnemonic steps need rather than rushing to finish registration — a rushed mnemonic transcription is one of the more common ways people lock themselves out of a Mars account permanently, and there is no urgency built into the process that requires finishing in one uninterrupted pass.
The sign-up in full
- Reach the verified onionOpen the confirmed Mars address in Tor Browser, using the mirror table and fingerprint check on the homepage first. Registration starts inside the market itself, never on a clearnet form, an email link, or a page that promises to "pre-register" your handle before you reach the real onion — no such thing exists for Mars, and any site offering it is not affiliated with the market.
- Clear the entry captchaExpect a captcha before the sign-up box loads, typically an image or proof-of-work style challenge that slows automated account creation. A registration page with no friction at all in front of it is unusual for a market this size and worth treating as a signal to double-check the address rather than proceed automatically.
- Pick a name and passphraseChoose a handle tied to nothing else you use anywhere else online — not a variant of a clearnet username, not tied to an email you use elsewhere. Pair it with a long, randomly generated passphrase stored in a password manager or written offline, never one reused from another account, since a leak elsewhere becomes a Mars account takeover the moment the same credentials are tried here.
- Save the recovery mnemonicThe market shows a recovery phrase exactly once at account creation. Write it down offline, on paper, away from any device with a camera, cloud sync, or screenshot capability nearby. Losing it means the account cannot be restored under any circumstance; there is no support ticket or identity-verification process that recovers a lost mnemonic on a market of this kind.
- Add PGP two-factorPaste your public key into the account's security settings so future login challenges must be signed with your private key, not just answered with a password. This single step blocks the most common account-takeover path — a stolen or guessed password alone — and is worth setting up in the same session as registration rather than deferring it.
Four habits that keep the account yours
Unique passphrase
Long, random, and used nowhere else, so one leak elsewhere cannot open this account.
Mnemonic offline
Keep the recovery phrase on paper, away from the machine and away from any cloud.
PGP login
Signed challenges mean a stolen password alone will not get anyone in.
Separate identity
A handle and email that touch nothing else keep this account from linking to the rest of your life.
Common Mars registration mistakes
Most account problems on Mars trace back to one of a handful of avoidable mistakes made during or right after sign-up, not to anything the market itself did. These are the ones that come up most often.
Registering through a search-result link instead of a verified address
A search engine result for "Mars registration" or "Mars sign up" can lead to a phishing clone built specifically to harvest the credentials and recovery phrase you enter during account creation. Reach the registration form only by opening the Mars onion address confirmed against the PGP fingerprint on the homepage of this catalog, never from a search snippet, an ad, or a link posted in an unrelated forum thread.
Photographing or typing the recovery mnemonic into a device
A phone camera roll, a notes app, a password manager's free-text field, or a cloud-synced document are all reachable by malware or a compromised account elsewhere in ways a piece of paper in a drawer is not. Write the mnemonic by hand on paper and store it offline; treat any digital copy of it, however "secure" the app claims to be, as a real compromise risk.
Reusing a passphrase or handle from another account
A handle that matches a username used on a clearnet forum, or a passphrase reused from an email or social account, creates a link between a real-world identity and a Mars account that no amount of on-market security fixes. Generate both fresh, specifically for this account, and do not reuse either anywhere else afterward.
Skipping PGP two-factor to save a few minutes at sign-up
Registration completes without PGP two-factor enabled, which makes it tempting to defer that step for later and then forget it. An account without signed login challenges is protected by a password alone, which is exactly the single point of failure two-factor exists to remove; enabling it in the same session as registration avoids the account sitting exposed in the meantime.
Assuming a support message asking for the mnemonic is legitimate
No legitimate account-recovery process on a market of this kind asks a user to submit their recovery mnemonic to "support" through a message, ticket, or PGP-encrypted note. A request for the mnemonic itself, framed as verification or recovery help, is a credential-theft attempt regardless of how convincing the sender's account appears.
Registering a new Mars account after losing access instead of checking the mirror table first
Losing access can mean the account credentials are gone, or it can mean the Mars mirror you bookmarked went offline while others in the catalog stayed reachable. Check the mirror table on the homepage before assuming a fresh registration is the fix; the account itself may still be reachable through a different verified address, and a second account fragments any order or dispute history tied to the first. When in doubt, wait a probe cycle and recheck the homepage before registering again from scratch.
Registration questions
Do I register on this website?
No. There is no account on this page and never will be. Sign-up happens inside the market over Tor. A clearnet form asking for Mars credentials is phishing.
Is there a registration fee or deposit to join?
Making an account is free. Any page asking you to pay a deposit before you can register is a scam, full stop.
What if I lose my recovery phrase?
Then the account cannot be restored. The phrase is shown once by design, so store it offline before you go any further.
Can I register from my phone?
Technically possible through Tor Browser for Android, but a dedicated computer offers better isolation between apps and a lower operational-security risk for an account you plan to use repeatedly.
Should I use my real email to register?
No. Use an email created specifically for this purpose, ideally accessed only over Tor, with no personal information tying it back to you. The same separation logic that applies to the handle and passphrase applies here.
Can I change my handle after registering on Mars?
Handle-change policy is set by the market itself and is not something this reference page controls or can promise either way. Treat the handle you choose at registration as effectively permanent, and pick one you are comfortable using long-term rather than assuming an easy rename option will exist later.
Does registering on Mars require an invite code?
This changes by market and by period, and is not something a clearnet reference page can state reliably for the current moment. Check the sign-up form itself inside the verified onion for the current requirement rather than trusting a claim about invite codes made anywhere else, including on this page.
Is a VPN required before registering on Mars?
Not required for Tor itself to function during registration. Some people add a VPN before opening Tor Browser specifically to keep their ISP from seeing that Tor is in use at all; that is a separate decision from the registration steps themselves and does not change how the sign-up sequence works.
Can I register on Mars more than once with different identities?
Nothing in the registration flow itself blocks a second account, but reusing any detail — username pattern, PGP key, payment address — across two accounts links them regardless of the intent behind having both. Treat each Mars registration as needing its own fully separate identity if separation is the goal.
What should I do if the registration page looks slightly different from what this guide describes?
Markets update their interfaces over time, so minor layout differences are expected and not inherently suspicious. What should not change is the underlying sequence — recovery phrase before anything else, PGP two-factor setup, no deposit requested to unlock an account. If that order is reversed or a deposit is demanded mid-registration, treat it as a mismatch worth stopping over regardless of how the surrounding page looks.
Confirm the market before you sign up
Onboarding only counts once you are on the genuine service. Head back to the home page, match the fingerprint, and begin registration from there rather than any link a stranger handed you.
This order matters more for registration than for casual browsing, because registration is the moment you hand a market your handle, passphrase, and eventually a PGP key. Doing that on an unverified address means a phishing clone captures all three at once, not just a page view. Verify first, every time, even if the address looks identical to one you used successfully before.
Independent resources on account security
The registration guidance above — unique passphrases, offline mnemonic storage, PGP-signed logins — follows general operational-security practice, not a Mars-specific invention. These two sources cover the underlying concepts in more depth.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guide covers password hygiene, secure storage of sensitive material, and threat modeling in plain language, applicable well beyond any one market's registration form. eff.org
Tor Project
The organization that builds and maintains Tor Browser, the only browser this registration sequence should ever be run through. Download it only from their official site. torproject.org
Neither organization is affiliated with Mars or with this catalog; both are cited because they publish independently, with no stake in whether any specific Mars registration guide gets followed. If a security recommendation on this page ever conflicts with current guidance from either source, treat their guidance as the more current one.