Several Binance users have reported falling victim to an SMS spoofing attack.

The phishing text appeared within Binance’s official message thread, making it nearly indistinguishable from legitimate communications.

User Reports Binance Phishing Incident

One user, Joe Zhou, shared his experience in a LinkedIn post, stating, “I want to report a recent scam related to the Bybit incident and Binance.”

Zhou described receiving an SMS from the same Binance number where he typically received verification codes. The message claimed that his account was being accessed from North Korea. Already dealing with the aftermath of the recent Bybit incident, he panicked and called the number provided.

The call was answered by someone who instructed him to set up a SafePal wallet, saying it was a Binance partner and referencing an article to support the claim. The individual repeatedly asked about the assets in his account and insisted that he transfer all of them for an investigation.

Following the instructions, Zhou set up the wallet and began withdrawing funds from Binance. However, he soon became suspicious and contacted an acquaintance from the exchange, who confirmed it was a scam.

The user then attempted to recover his funds by transferring them out of the wallet, but the scammer began competing with him to move the assets. Eventually, Zhou ran out of gas fees. As he attempted to swap ETH for fees, his balance was cleared.

The attack occurred just days after Bybit suffered an exploit that resulted in the loss of nearly $1.5 billion worth of ETH from its cold wallet. Blockchain analysts and the FBI have identified the North Korean hacking syndicate Lazarus Group as the likely perpetrator.

Sophisticated Spoofing Attack

SlowMist’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) analyzed the breach, stating that it involved a sophisticated method. He disclosed that his friend had also received identical phishing text and shared a screenshot that showed the precise forgery used.

According to him, one possibility was that fraudsters faked official text sources through spoofing, using technical methods to manipulate the sender’s number and embed text messages into official conversations.

Alternatively, they may have exploited SMS gateway vulnerabilities or conducted supply chain attacks by breaching the gateway, targeting operators or third-party providers, or collaborating with SMS providers to fake official replies, making detection difficult.

Phishing remains a major threat to crypto users. Blockchain security firm Scam Sniffer reported that such scams drained $10.25 million from 9,220 victims in January. Although this marked a 56% decline from December’s $23.58 million losses, the report noted that scammers are evolving and implementing more intricate methods.

After a highly volatile and painful trading week, bitcoin’s price continues with its gradual recovery, as it now sits above $86,000.

Many altcoins have produced impressive gains over the past few days, and XLM stands in a league of its own with a surge past $0.3.

BTC Calms at $86K

A lot can and has been said about the events that transpired in the cryptocurrency market in the past week. Recall that BTC stood close to $100,000 on February 21, which was rejected and pushed down to $96,000 the previous weekend.

However, the actual pain started on Tuesday morning with a drop to $86,000. After a minor recovery to $89,000, the cryptocurrency dumped once again to $82,000. The scenario repeated once again on Thursday, with a bounce-off to $86,000, and on Friday morning, with a massive price crash to $78,000.

This became bitcoin’s lowest price tag in over three months. While many, including Arthur Hayes, predicted an even more painful performance during the weekend, BTC’s price actually reacted well to the latest massacre and now sits about eight grand higher.

Its market capitalization has managed to defend the $1.7 trillion level, while its dominance over the alts stands tall at 58% on CG.

XLM on a Roll

The altcoins were hit the hardest during the days-long correction, but most have recovered some ground since Friday. XRP continues with its gradual ascent and now stands close to $2.3 after another 5% increase since yesterday.

ADA has defended the $0.6 support and now trades above $0.65. SOL, BNB, DOGE, LINK, and SIU are also with minor gains, while XLM has soared by 7.5% in the past day and almost 30% since Friday’s low to over $0.32,

In contrast, ETH, LTC, and TRX have charted insignificant losses over the past 24 hours.

Nevertheless, the total crypto market cap is more than $250 billion higher than the low on Friday. However, it’s still under the $3 trillion mark on CG.

Ethereum has been experiencing a wild crash over the last few days, breaking below several significant support levels. Investors are now wondering when this downtrend will end.

Technical Analysis

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

The Daily Chart

On the daily chart, the asset has been dropping rapidly since breaking below the 200-day moving average, located around the $2,900 mark.

The $2,700 and $2,350 levels are also broken to the downside, as the price is currently testing the $2,100 support zone. If this level also gets broken to the downside, a deeper decline toward the $1,750 level could be expected in the coming months.

The 4-Hour Chart

Looking at the 4-hour chart, things are not looking good at all for ETH, as the asset has been making lower highs and lows consistently over the last couple of months.

Currently, the $2,100 support level is holding the price. A temporary recovery could be probable if ETH breaks above the $2,400 level. However, if the $2,100 area is also lost, a much worse drop would be likely for Ethereum.

Sentiment Analysis

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

Open Interest

Many analysts and investors are blaming the futures market for Ethereum’s massive crash over the recent weeks. However, analyzing the open interest metric indicates this might not be the case this time.

This chart demonstrates the open interest metric, which measures the number of open futures contracts. As the chart suggests, while the price has experienced a significant drop, the open interest is not declining as it should be and is still lagging.

This indicates that the recent price action is not totally due to long liquidation cascades, and most of the selling pressure comes from the spot market. Also, it warns investors that things could get much worse in case a much bigger liquidation event occurs.