Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals after a breach that blockchain analysts estimated at more than $46 million, spread across many blockchains. The exchange says customers lost nothing, but funds kept moving for hours and the entry point remains undisclosed.
Exchange halts transfers after an overnight incident
Mercado Bitcoin confirmed a security incident on Monday and suspended deposits and withdrawals, according to The Block. That outlet describes the platform as Brazil's largest crypto exchange and puts the breach at $46 million. Decrypt quoted the company's Portuguese-language statement on X, in which it said it had identified the problem in one of its systems before dawn and quickly brought it under control.
The exchange calls the suspension a preventive step. It has said that customers suffered no financial harm and that no data was exposed. Decrypt reported that no date has been given for resuming service, and that the company promised regular updates on X.
What the on-chain trail shows so far
Cointelegraph relayed an early post-mortem from Dickson Wu, a senior security engineer at Certik. Wu said the attackers "picked at eight small chains for four hours," including Base, Optimism and Arbitrum. They then went after the exchange's main hot wallets and sent tiny amounts of ETH from 27,160 different addresses.
Wu also warned that whoever did this could move money out of the exchange's customer deposit addresses. Security firms told Cointelegraph the attack used ordinary transfers rather than a smart contract exploit. A hot wallet is an internet-connected wallet that an exchange uses for routine payouts, so a compromise there reaches funds that are meant to be easy to move.
Protos added a trader's view. It quoted Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic as saying that old deposit addresses were being swept while the hacker sold memecoins and altcoins.
The numbers reported so far
Each outlet carries a different slice of the picture. The figures below are attributed as the outlets reported them.
- Estimated losses of more than $46 million, per Cointelegraph and Protos, with Protos saying the total was still growing.
- More than $40 million in suspicious transfers flagged by security firm Hypernative, covering at least 10 blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron, according to Decrypt. Mercado Bitcoin has not confirmed that figure.
- About $6.2 million frozen by Tether and Circle as of 4:42 pm UTC, per Cointelegraph.
- About $20 million moved into newly created wallets, and over $20 million still sitting in addresses the exchange identified, including all 106 BTC, per Cointelegraph.
- More than 4.5 million USDT frozen by Tether, according to a post by its CEO Paolo Ardoino cited by Decrypt.
Where the outlets agree and where they diverge
The headline loss differs by outlet. Decrypt leads with $40 million, which is Hypernative's preliminary figure for transfers that may be linked to the incident. Cointelegraph and Protos use $46 million, and The Block's headline and summary also carry that number. The Block's text available here goes no further, so it cannot be compared on cause or detail.
The freeze figures are not directly comparable either. Ardoino's post concerns Tether's USDT freeze, while Cointelegraph's tally combines Tether and Circle at a specific time. Neither outlet explains how the two amounts relate.
The company's message also meets some friction. Protos reported that the exchange said it had contained the incident and that there was no harm to customers. Cointelegraph reported that addresses tied to the breach kept receiving funds for hours after the suspension, and that the company did not answer questions about those transfers.
A second exchange breach in days, and a Tether link
The incident follows a hot wallet theft at Binance. Cointelegraph put that loss at $6.3 billion, while Decrypt and Protos said more than $6 billion. Decrypt dated it to October 29 and said the FBI attributed it to North Korea's TraderTraitor group. Protos said it exceeded the Bybit theft of almost $1.5 billion. Binance has resumed withdrawals and says it has replenished about 95% of the affected assets.
Decrypt stressed that Mercado Bitcoin has not tied its own case to Binance or named a culprit. Cointelegraph likewise reported that no organized group has been named as responsible and that inquiries are still under way.
Cointelegraph also noted that Mercado Bitcoin had 4.5 million users as of July, when Tether announced a $20 million investment in the exchange. It recalled that Orionx, a Chilean exchange also backed by Tether, said in September it was shutting down, after a forensic audit determined that over $7 million of customer assets had been shifted to wallets the platform did not control. The outlets do not connect these cases to each other.
Practical checks for holders and project teams
Mercado Bitcoin published destination addresses on five networks: EVM chains, Bitcoin, Solana, Stellar and Tron. It said the list was meant only to help others identify and track the funds. EVM chains run the same code as Ethereum, so one address can show up across several of them.
Project teams can compare those addresses with their own holder lists and exchange deposit flows. Readers following smaller tokens on Ethereum-compatible networks can also review newly listed Ethereum tokens and Ethereum meme coins on Coinvote, since Protos reported that stolen assets were being sold into memecoins and altcoins.
Open questions to watch
Several points remain unresolved, and the outlets do not answer them.
- How the attackers got in, which Decrypt says the exchange has not disclosed.
- When deposits and withdrawals will resume.
- Whether the frozen amounts grow as Tether, Circle and others act on the published addresses.
- Whether a data breach is later confirmed, which Cointelegraph said could trigger notification duties to Brazil's data protection authority, despite the company's statement that no data leaked.
- Whether investigators find any link to the Binance theft, which no outlet has established.
Market snapshot
| Asset | Price | 24h | 7d | Market cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $76,548 | -1.9% | -4.2% | $1.54 trillion |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $2,247 | -1.5% | -3.0% | $274.50 billion |
| TRON (TRX) | $0.320709 | +1.7% | -2.5% | $30.47 billion |
CoinGecko data as of 2026-11-03 (UTC); DeFi TVL from DefiLlama: Ethereum $43.63 billion, Tron $5.23 billion.
On Coinvote
- New Ethereum Tokens Listed Today: 2,934 projects tracked, 5 new listings in 7 days, 27 community votes today.
- Best Ethereum Meme Coins Today: 260 projects tracked, 2 new listings in 7 days, 25 community votes today.
FAQ
How much was stolen from Mercado Bitcoin?
Blockchain analysts quoted by Cointelegraph and Protos estimated more than $46 million. Hypernative flagged more than $40 million in suspicious transfers, and Mercado Bitcoin has not confirmed either figure.
Did Mercado Bitcoin customers lose money?
The exchange says customers suffered no financial harm and no data was exposed. Deposits and withdrawals remain suspended, and no date for their return has been announced, according to Decrypt.
Can stolen stablecoins be recovered?
Tether has frozen more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the incident, according to Ardoino, and Cointelegraph reported about $6.2 million frozen by Tether and Circle together. Decrypt noted that a freeze stops tokens from moving but does not by itself return them to their owner.
Sources
- The Block: Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, hit by $46 million security breach (2026-11-02)
- Cointelegraph: Mercado Bitcoin wallets keep moving funds after $46M hack (2026-11-02)
- Protos: Mercado Bitcoin hack losses are at $46M and growing (2026-11-02)
- Decrypt: Brazil's Largest Exchange Mercado Bitcoin Halts Withdrawals After $40 Million Hack (2026-11-02)
- CoinGecko (market data), DefiLlama (TVL), Coinvote listing and vote data
Written by the Coinvote news desk from reporting by The Block, Cointelegraph, Protos and Decrypt. Not financial advice.
