A recent spike in .onion services has many speculating as to what might be happening. More than 25,000 new hidden services have surfaced in the last few days; leading some to believe one thing, and others to believe another. The possibilities are vast, but there are a few likely suspects.
The new anonymous chat client Ricochet. In short, Ricochet stays anonymous by using the Tor network. Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey is one who believes this could be a possibility. Professor Woodward thinks Ricochet is causing this by creating so many unique .onion addresses.
https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/02/23/tor-mystery-spike-in-hidden-services-addresses/
