Mercado Bitcoin Halts Withdrawals as $40M Flagged Across 10 Chains - Altcoin Buzz
Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals on Monday, November 2, following a security incident that saw over $40 million in suspicious transfers flagged across 10 blockchains.
The Brazilian exchange described the suspension as a precautionary measure, stating that no customer money was lost and no customer data leaked. However, it has not confirmed the $40 million figure reported by blockchain security firm Hypernative, which flagged suspicious transfers across multiple blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Tron.
Tether Freezes Funds
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced on X that the company had frozen more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the incident. This marks the second connection between the two companies, following Tether's $20 million investment in Mercado Bitcoin in July when it reported serving 4.5 million users.
Unconfirmed Losses
The $40 million figure remains an outside estimate of suspicious transfers, not a confirmed loss. Other analysts have suggested the total could be higher. Mercado Bitcoin has published destination addresses it identified on five networks, allowing other platforms to monitor fund movements.
The exchange has not provided a date for resuming operations, confirmed how attackers gained access, or attributed the breach to any specific group. The incident occurred five days after attackers drained over $6 billion from Binance on October 29, though no connection between the two breaches has been confirmed.
Related
