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Mercado Bitcoin suspends withdrawals after an estimated $40 to $46 million theft
On November 2, 2026, Mercado Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Brazil, temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals following a security incident. The exchange stated that it had identified and contained the attack, asserting that customer funds and data are safe and that it would absorb the losses incurred. The platform serves approximately 4.5 million users.
Why it matters
The incident occurs against a backdrop of growing instability in the sector, following the massive attack on Binance on October 29, 2026. According to Akrham analyst Emmett Gallic, hackers are draining old deposit addresses and selling memecoins and altcoins, causing loss estimates to rise. Tether has frozen over $4.5 million in USDT linked to the attack, while Circle blocked another $800 million worth of assets in coordination with authorities. The FBI attributed the Binance attack to North Korea.
The numbers
Sources differ on the exact amount of funds stolen from Mercado Bitcoin: CoinDesk and Decrypt report a figure of $40 million, while Cointelegraph and Protos indicate $46 million. Hypernative preliminarily estimated suspicious transfers at $40 million. Assets were drained from wallets across at least 10 different blockchain chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum-compatible networks, Solana, Stellar, and Tron. Regarding Binance, the value of assets reached by attackers was $6.3 billion; the exchange replaced 95% of these assets by November 1, 2026.
What remains to be understood
The exact date for the reopening of the Mercado Bitcoin platform has not yet been specified, nor which specific system was breached. The final amount of losses is not definitive, as estimates are increasing. Furthermore, the final destination of approximately $3.3 billion stolen from Binance has not been fully explained, and the attribution of the attack to the North Korean group Trader Traitor has not been officially confirmed.
Sources: CoinDesk, Decrypt, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine, Protos.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or an investment recommendation.
* Content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence systems.