Attackers first targeted obscure forums and small-scale crypto tools where security was an afterthought.
These individual leaks were eventually sold to "middlemen" who merged them into larger distributions, like this 2M version, to increase the likelihood of success. 2M COMBOLIST CRYPTO.txt
Behind the lines of text in 2M COMBOLIST CRYPTO.txt are real victims. Someone who signed up for a crypto news
Someone who signed up for a crypto news site in 2021 using their primary email and a weak password. Years later, that same password is used to drain their actual wallet because they didn't enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) . Combolists and ULP Files on the Dark Web
Use tools like Have I Been Pwned to see if your email has already appeared in a known combolist. Combolists and ULP Files on the Dark Web - Group-IB
Even if a user changed their password on one site, "old passwords" found in these combolists often remain dangerous if variants of them are still used elsewhere. Protecting Your Digital Fortune