Mercado Bitcoin’s $40M+ Exit Drama Ends With a Promise: Customers Won’t Foot the Bill

Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it will begin restoring customer account access on Monday after a security incident that blockchain analysts estimated involved more than $46 million in transferred assets. Deposits and withdrawals remain suspended, while transfers, withdrawals and trading will return in later phases following independent security testing, the exchange said.

The exchange identified and contained the incident overnight on November 2, 2026, initially reporting “There was no loss to clients;” and “There was no data leak.” Mercado Bitcoin later placed the value of the affected assets at about $38 million and pledged to cover losses with company funds. It said balances remain recorded in customers’ respective accounts and that more than $15 million in stolen funds had been frozen with assistance from industry participants.

Hypernative flagged more than $40 million in suspicious transfers across at least 10 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Smart Chain and Stellar. Arkham traced at least $46 million, while Chainalysis estimated about $49 million. The movements were executed through ordinary transfers signed as if authorized by the source wallets rather than through a smart-contract exploit, and the mechanism that enabled the signing remains unknown.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the stablecoin issuer froze more than 4.5 million USDT connected to the incident. Mercado Bitcoin also said it was working with Tether, Circle, Paxos, BRL1 and Chainalysis. As of 4:42 pm UTC, approximately $6.2 million had been frozen by Tether and Circle, about $20 million had moved into newly created wallets, and more than $20 million remained in addresses identified by the exchange, including all 106 BTC.

When account access resumes, customers will initially be able to view balances, statements, holdings and investments through the Mercado Bitcoin website. The exchange said its trading desk was preparing to repurchase affected assets in domestic and international markets. It described its liquidity position as strong, including a $20 million investment from Tether supporting operational expansion.

The incident followed the more than $6 billion Binance hack on October 29, which the FBI attributed to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group. Binance has reopened withdrawals and said it replenished about 95% of the affected assets. Mercado Bitcoin has not linked the incidents, and deposits and withdrawals will remain suspended until the exchange completes its security restoration process.