Binance Scam Warning: Second Wave Hits After $6.3B Hack
The Binance scam warning is out: on November 2 the exchange said fraudsters are using its phased withdrawal reopening to target customers. Per CryptoSlate, scammers pose as Binance staff and offer help with delayed withdrawals, compensation or recovery. So do not answer them.
What the Binance scam warning lists
Binance says the tricks include fake emails, direct messages and group chats. Some come as small crypto transfers carrying malicious instructions. Others promise to speed up a pending withdrawal, sell “priority access” to the queue, or send users to fake proof-of-reserves and compensation sites.
However, the costly one is the wallet approval. Once you approve it, attackers can move your assets without asking again, and the loss may be irreversible. Binance says it never charges fees to unlock withdrawals, never sells recovery services and never asks you to authorize a wallet transaction to regain funds.
Where the Binance scam warning meets the hack
The theft happened on October 29 and drained about $6.3 billion from hot wallets across 10 blockchains, per Crypto Briefing. Founder Changpeng Zhao warned on November 2 that “the scammers just arrived.” Meanwhile, Binance says about 95% of impacted assets have been replaced. The rest is less-liquid coins that are hard to buy in size. CNBC, by contrast, reported 90% coverage on October 31, so the figure has moved.
Withdrawals began reopening on November 1 and another phase was due November 3. Crypto Briefing puts net outflows at about $3.64 billion and frozen funds at about $3 billion. Still, those are reported figures, not audited ones. Binance also completed a zero-knowledge reserve proof on November 2, which shows balances are backed at least 1:1 but is not a solvency audit.
Earlier coverage: the day-one outflows and the FBI’s North Korea attribution.
Miner math: what a Binance fallout price drop means for your margin
Here is the live maths on November 3. Bitcoin is $77,158 and the network is 1036 EH/s, so hashprice is about $33.76 per petahash per day. That is what one PH/s of hashing earns before power.
| Machine | 5c/kWh | 8c/kWh | 12c/kWh | Break-even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer S19 (95 TH/s, 3250 W) | -$0.69 | -$3.03 | -$6.15 | 4.1c |
| Antminer S19k Pro (115 TH/s, 2645 W) | $0.71 | -$1.20 | -$3.74 | 6.1c |
| Antminer S19 XP (141 TH/s, 3010 W) | $1.15 | -$1.02 | -$3.91 | 6.6c |
| Antminer S21 Pro (234 TH/s, 3510 W) | $3.69 | $1.16 | -$2.21 | 9.4c |
Numbers are profit per day after electricity, at the three power prices shown. Break-even is the most you can pay per kilowatt-hour before the machine loses money. Specs are the manufacturer ratings; network data comes from mempool.space. Try your own power price in our free bitcoin mining profit calculator. See what these machines really sold for in our used ASIC miner price index. Want to run the same numbers on a machine you can buy today? See our used ASIC miners, or buy several at once through bulk lots.
If more Binance fallout pushes bitcoin down 5%: the break-even power price on an S19k Pro falls from 6.1 to 5.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. At 8 cents, daily profit goes from -$1.20 to -$1.39.
The blunt answer for miners
First, this story is about phishing, not hashrate. Scams do not change difficulty. However, they do hit miners in one place, though: the exchange account where you sell and the wallet where you hold. Also, bitcoin fell to about $76,000 last week and recovered above $78,000. At that price, check the table above before you worry about anything else. Hashrate sits near 1036 EH/s per mempool.space.
We suggest three rules. First, only use links typed from your own bookmarks. Second, never approve a wallet request to “restore” funds. Third, keep payout addresses on a device you control. If a 5% lower price puts your S19 underwater, see our we buy used miners page or the mining economics guides.
-Nick
ING Mining
This is general information, not financial advice. Crypto is volatile, and exchanges can fail. Please do your own research.