Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has dismissed an underground marketplace listing that claimed 335 million user records were stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange, calling the offer “obviously fake/scam” in a post on X dated Nov. 9.

The advertisement, published under the name ShinyHunters, offered a dataset of 335,900,000 lines said to contain Binance user records. No independent verification of the dataset's authenticity has been reported, and the claim has not been substantiated by any evidence made public so far.

Zhao, widely known as CZ, founded Binance in 2017 and led the exchange as chief executive until November 2023, when he stepped down after pleading guilty to a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act as part of a settlement with U.S. authorities. Richard Teng subsequently assumed the role of CEO. Zhao remains active on X, where he maintains a large following within the cryptocurrency industry, and his public posts are closely watched by market participants and media alike.

The ShinyHunters name has been associated in cybersecurity reporting with a series of high-profile data-breach claims and extortion attempts over the past several years. Databases offered for sale on underground forums are frequently inflated, recycled from older incidents, or outright fabricated, and security researchers generally treat such listings with skepticism unless the underlying data can be independently verified. Claimed line counts also say little on their own, since leaked compilations have historically mixed duplicates and outdated entries with any live records. For exchange customers, even unverified breach claims can carry practical consequences, as purported leaks are at times repurposed to lend credibility to phishing and impersonation attempts. Attention now turns to whether any sample of the dataset can be independently checked, and whether Binance addresses the claim beyond Zhao's post through official channels.

This content was first published on COINOTAG.