Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals on November 2, 2026, following a security breach involving hot wallets across at least 10 blockchains. Security firm Hypernative estimated suspicious outflows at $40 million. Mercado Bitcoin stated it would absorb all losses, confirming no customer funds were lost and no personal data was compromised. Meanwhile, Tether froze $4.5 million in USDT tied to the incident. The attack comes days after a $6 billion exploit hit Binance.
Impact on exchange operations and services
- ▪Mercado Bitcoin temporarily disabled customer access to its mobile application following the November 2, 2026 security incident involving a hack on its hot wallets
- ▪Mercado Bitcoin temporarily suspended all cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals
Details and scale of the attack
- ▪Blockchain security firm Hypernative estimated that over $40 million in unauthorized transfers occurred across at least 10 blockchains linked to Mercado Bitcoin's wallets
- ▪Mercado Bitcoin stated on November 2, 2026, that it would absorb a estimated $40 million loss resulting from an attack on its hot wallets detected that day
- ▪The unauthorized transactions from Mercado Bitcoin on November 2, 2026 were plain transfers signed as authorized transactions rather than a smart contract exploit, according to Hypernative
Response and asset recovery efforts
- ▪Mercado Bitcoin published destination wallet addresses across EVM chains, Bitcoin, Solana, Stellar, and Tron on November 2, 2026, to assist on-chain fund tracking
- ▪Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced on November 2, 2026, that the stablecoin issuer froze over 4.5 million USDT connected to the hack on Mercado Bitcoin's hot wallets
- ▪Tether's token blacklisting prevents frozen USDT from being transferred between addresses but does not automatically return the frozen USDT to Mercado Bitcoin
Recent attack on Binance
- ▪The Mercado Bitcoin exploit occurred days after a separate cyberattack stole over $6 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which the FBI attributed to North Korea's TraderTraitor group
- ▪Binance restored customer withdrawals on November 1, 2026, after covering losses and replenishing approximately 95% of the affected assets following its record $6 billion security breach attributed to North Korea's TraderTraitor group
Timing of security breach
- ▪According to security firm Hypernative, suspicious transfers linked to the hack on Mercado Bitcoin's hot wallets first appeared around 11 PM on November 1, 2026, in Brazil
- ▪Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin identified and contained a security breach in one of its systems
Exchange disclosures on breach
- ▪Mercado Bitcoin has not confirmed the estimated $40 million loss figure or disclosed how attackers accessed its systems during the November 2, 2026 hack on its hot wallets
- ▪Mercado Bitcoin stated in a Portuguese-language release on November 2, 2026, that no customer funds were lost and no user data was leaked during the security incident involving a hack on its hot wallets
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