Tether freezes over $4.5m USDT linked to Mercado Bitcoin breach - Crypto News
Tether froze more than $4.5 million USDT following Mercado Bitcoin's security incident on November 2, as the Brazilian exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals while investigating suspicious fund movements.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the freeze of more than 4.5 million USDT linked to Mercado Bitcoin's security incident. The Brazilian exchange had suspended all deposits and withdrawals while investigating suspicious fund movements following the breach.
Mercado Bitcoin stated it had identified and swiftly contained the security incident affecting one of its systems early on November 2. The exchange assured customers that they suffered no harm and that there had been no data breach.
Tether froze more than 4.5M USDT related to this security incident.
Exchange suspends transfers
The temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals was described as a precautionary measure taken to protect the platform while Mercado Bitcoin's teams investigated the incident. The company said those teams were actively tracking assets and coordinating measures with relevant authorities.
For customers, the operational restriction remained separate from the exchange's assurance about their balances. Mercado Bitcoin maintained that customers had not been harmed, while transfers into and out of the platform were temporarily unavailable.
Addresses published across blockchains
Mercado Bitcoin published destination addresses identified in transactions related to the incident, covering EVM-compatible networks, Bitcoin, Solana, Stellar and Tron. The company said it released the addresses to contribute to monitoring and tracking assets on blockchain networks.
The EVM entry identified the address 0xe485e7A70b1131216Cb47CA4555c4Bbb2C742478. Separate entries listed destinations for BTC, SOL, XLM and TRON, giving investigators references for following transactions associated with the breach.
Suspicious transfers exceed $40m
Brazilian outlet BitNotícias reported that security company Hypernative had flagged more than $40 million in suspicious transfers from wallets attributed to Mercado Bitcoin. The movements involved newly created destination addresses across at least 10 blockchain networks.
The reported outflow estimate and Tether's freeze cover different measures: one concerns suspicious transfers across multiple assets and networks, while the other identifies USDT blocked by its issuer. Neither announcement established a final recoverable total.
Related
