Darkweb threat actors claim to have hundreds of thousands of user records — including names, passwords and location data — of Gemini and Binance users, putting the apparent lists up for sale on the internet. 

The Dark Web Informer, a Darkweb cyber news site, said in a March 27 blog post that the latest sale is from a threat actor operating under the handle AKM69, who purportedly has an extensive list of private user information from users of crypto exchange Gemini. 

“The database for sale reportedly includes 100,000 records, each containing full names, emails, phone numbers, and location data of individuals from the United States and a few entries from Singapore and the UK,” the Dark Web Informer said.

Source: Dark Web Informer

“The threat actor categorized the listing as part of a broader campaign of selling consumer data for crypto-related marketing, fraud, or recovery targeting.”

Gemini didn’t immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. 

A day earlier, Dark Web Informer said another user, kiki88888, was offering to sell Binance emails and passwords, with the compromised data reportedly containing 132,744 lines of information.

Source: Dark Web Informer

Binance says leaked info came through phishing, not data leak

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Binance said the information on the dark web is not the result of a data leak from the exchange. Instead, it was a hacker who collected data by compromising browser sessions on infected computers using malware.

In a follow-up post, the Dark Web Informer also alluded to the data theft being a result of user’s tech being comprised rather than a leak from Binance, saying, “Some of you really need to stop clicking random stuff.” 

Source: Dark Web Informer

In a similar situation last September, a hacker under the handle FireBear claimed to have a database with 12.8 million records stolen from Binance, with data including last names, first names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and residential addresses, according to reports at the time. 

Binance denied the claims, dismissing the hacker’s claim to have sensitive user data as false after an internal investigation from their security team. 

Related: Binance claims code leak on GitHub is ‘outdated,’ poses minor risk

This isn’t the first cyber threat targeting users of major crypto exchanges this month. Australian federal police said on March 21 they had to alert 130 people of a message scam aimed at crypto users that spoofed the same “sender ID” as legitimate crypto exchanges, such as Binance. 

Another similar string of scam messages reported by X users on March 14 spoofed Coinbase and Gemini attempting to trick users into setting up a new wallet using pre-generated recovery phrases controlled by the fraudsters. 

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South Carolina has become the latest US state to dismiss its lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase over its staking services, which had accused the crypto exchange of offering unregistered securities.

The lawsuit was officially dismissed in a joint stipulation between the crypto exchange and the South Carolina Attorney General’s securities division on March 27.

“South Carolina just joined Vermont to dismiss its unfounded staking lawsuit against Coinbase,” the firm’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, said in a March 27 X post.

“This is not just a victory for us, but for American consumers and we hope it’s a sign of things to come in the few states left that restrict staking.”

South Carolina Attorney General and Coinbase’s joint stipulation. Source: South Carolina Attorney General

South Carolina and Vermont were two of 10 US states that took legal action against Coinbase’s staking services on June 6, 2023 — the same day that the federal securities regulator filed its lawsuit against the crypto exchange.

The Securities and Exchange Commission officially dismissed that lawsuit on Feb. 27, 2025.

The other eight US states that filed enforcement action similar to South Carolina were Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington and Wisconsin. 

Grewal said he hoped to see other states follow suit, and that South Carolina residents lost an estimated $2 million in staking rewards as a result of the lawsuit.

“The 52 million Americans who own crypto deserve commonsense consumer protections and clear rules,” he said. “We applaud South Carolina for standing up for justice and hope the remaining states with bans on staking will take notice.”

South Carolina introduces Bitcoin reserve bill

Meanwhile, a state lawmaker has just introduced the “Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Act of South Carolina” on March 27, which could see the state treasurer allocate up to 10% of certain state funds to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC).

Unlike most US state crypto reserve bills, North Carolina’s House Bill 4256, introduced by Rep. Jordan Pace, mentioned Bitcoin on several occasions for the Strategic Digital Assets Reserve that the bill seeks to establish.

Source: Jordan Pace

The bill allows South Carolina’s treasurer, currently Curtis Loftis, to establish a Bitcoin reserve that exceeds no more than 1 million Bitcoin — a high ceiling that the US federal government is also looking to reach or exceed with its recently established Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The treasurer would be able to add Bitcoin to South Carolina’s General Fund, the Budget Stabilization Reserve Fund any other investment fund that they manage.

Related: Coinbase files FOIA to see how much the SEC’s ‘war on crypto’ cost

While no mention of stablecoins, non-fungible tokens, Ether (ETH) or any other crypto tokens was made, the House bill said the Strategic Digital Assets Reserve wouldn’t be limited to Bitcoin.

According to Bitcoin Law, 42 Bitcoin reserve bills have been introduced at the state level in 19 states, and 36 of those 42 bills remain live.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, both of which will initially use cryptocurrency forfeited in government criminal cases.

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The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has imposed a Short Sale Restriction (SSR) on GameStop after volume spiked to levels reminiscent of GameStop’s famous 2021 short squeeze.

GameStop (GME) short sales volume — the total number of shares sold short within a specific timeframe — rose 234% over 24 hours, reaching 30.85 million shares sold on March 27, according to TradingView data. 

The SSR kicks in when a stock drops over 10% from the previous day’s closing price. GameStop’s stock fell 22% over the trading day, wiping out its 12% gain from the Bitcoin announcement and then some, according to Google Finance data.

At the time of publication, GME was trading at $22.09.

GameStop shorts volume near 2021 short squeeze levels

The rule is applied for the rest of the trading day and the following trading day. Malone Wealth president and CEO Kevin Malone said in a March 27 X post that “GameStop traded 50x more shares today than last Thursday. Not statistically possible without naked short-selling.”

GameStop’s short sale volume reached 30.88 million on March 27. Source: TradingView

The number is close to the levels reached in January 2021 when GameStop stocks famously went meteoric after a “short squeeze” of the stock, causing significant losses for hedge funds and other short sellers while some retail traders made significant returns.

The highest point reached during that month was 33.26 million shares on Jan. 19.

GameStop Bitcoin buy is “dot-comish”

GameStop did not specify how much Bitcoin it plans to purchase, but after the markets closed on March 26, the firm announced a $1.3 billion convertible notes offering.

However, some analysts and commentators have questioned GameStop’s plan to start purchasing Bitcoin. Speaking to Yahoo Finance on March 27, Tastylive founder and CEO Tom Sosnoff said that GameStop’s decision to buy Bitcoin feels “a little dot-comish” to him.

Source: Hans Akamatsu

“It feels a little like, oh, I’m going to throw a dot com at the end of my name, I’m going to buy some Bitcoin with our excess cash because we can’t find a company that is going to be accretive,” Sosnoff said.

Meanwhile, Bret Kenwell, US investment analyst at eToro, told Reuters on March 27 that “investors are not necessarily optimistic on the underlying business.”

Biggest day of short sales still goes to Keith Gill’s return 

The biggest day of short sales still belongs to June 3, 2024, when it reached 46.20 million. 

This was around the time Keith Gill, a stock trader known for the GameStop short squeeze in 2021, revealed on June 2 that he had started trading GameStop stock again, this time with $180 million to play with. 

Related: Firms without business models ‘buy Bitcoin’ — Angel investor Jason Calacanis

GameStop said the convertible senior notes — debt that can later be converted into equity — will be used for general corporate purposes, including acquiring Bitcoin.

Some analysts see the convertible notes offering announcement as the reason for the stock’s decline.

Han Akamatsu said in a March 27 X post that GameStop’s stock is dropping for the same reason Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) declined after issuing convertible notes.

“In 2021, MSTR issued $1.05B of 0% convertible notes, the stock dipped after the announcement due to hedging shorts, but later exploded when Bitcoin ripped and the arbitrage unspooled,” Akamatsu said, adding:

“GME is following the same blueprint now …If GME or BTC goes up a lot, the trade gets very interesting as we have a squeeze opportunity here.”

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.