Binance calls claimed 335.9M-record data leak a likely scam

The hacker group ShinyHunters has listed what it claims are 335.9 million Binance records on an underground forum, demanding $900,000 in BTC or Monero. On Nov. 9, Binance said it found no sign of a breach of its systems and that the claim is likely a scam.

Details

The listing was flagged by threat-monitoring service ThreatMon. It describes data from users in roughly 170 countries, including emails, phone numbers, passwords, ID documents, transaction history and wallet private keys. ThreatMon notes that neither the claims nor the samples have been verified, and that a record count is not the same as the number of affected people.

A Binance spokesperson told crypto.news: "Based on the description provided and the sample information reviewed so far, this appears likely to be a scam rather than evidence of a Binance systems breach." According to ChainCatcher, the exchange pointed to inconsistencies: it does not store passwords in plain text, does not hold private keys for users' external wallets, and the data references regions where Binance no longer operates. The review is ongoing, as Incrypted also reports.

The claim is separate from the Oct. 29 hot-wallet hack at Binance, covered in our earlier note.

What it means for the market

Until the data is shown to be genuine, this remains an extortionist's claim. If the samples prove real, the main risk would be phishing and account takeover attempts rather than losses from the exchange itself. Users should enable two-factor authentication and avoid links in emails claiming to come from an exchange. For the BTC price, see the daily brief. This is not investment advice.