Cryptocurrency exchange BitMart suffered a $391,000 hack on November 2, 2026, amid an ongoing court-supervised restructuring. Founder Sheldon Xia confirmed the breach on X, with Bitquery on-chain data linking the stolen funds to a wallet address used 53 minutes later in a $48.6 million exploit of Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin. Xia cited severe security understaffing caused by user threats and employee retaliation. The incident occurs during record industry losses exceeding $8.776 billion in 2026.
BitMart breach and Mercado Bitcoin link
- ▪On-chain data from Bitquery showed attackers drained approximately $391,000 from BitMart wallets across the Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism Ethereum layer-2 networks on November 2, 2026
- ▪BitMart founder Sheldon Xia confirmed that the cryptocurrency exchange suffered a security breach
- ▪On-chain data indicates attackers targeted BitMart wallets approximately 53 minutes before executing a $48.6 million exploit on Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin on November 2, 2026
Wind-down staffing pressures
- ▪BitMart founder Sheldon Xia stated that the exchange's security team became severely understaffed during BitMart's wind-down process due to user doxxing, threats, and former employee retaliation, leaving remaining systems vulnerable while cyberattacks continue
- ▪BitMart founder Sheldon Xia specifically named the exchange's former head of marketing when describing former employee retaliation and staffing pressures during BitMart's wind-down process
BitMart closure and restructuring status
- ▪BitMart is operating under court-supervised restructuring with a projected $319.5 million shortfall, partially resulting from a December 2021 hot-wallet hack that drained up to $196 million
- ▪BitMart announced its exchange shutdown on July 26, 2026, halted all trading activities by August 26, 2026, and scheduled full closure of operations for January 31, 2027
Cryptocurrency exploit losses in 2026
- ▪DefiLlama data shows cryptocurrency exploit losses reached $8.776 billion in 2026, exceeding three times the $2.715 billion stolen in 2025
- ▪A $6.3 billion hack on cryptocurrency exchange Binance represents the largest single exploit in 2026, contributing to total industry losses of $8.776 billion
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