Brazil's Biggest Bitcoin Exchange Says It Will Refund Users After a $40 Million Hack
Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, has pledged to fully reimburse customers after a security breach that resulted in the theft of approximately $38 million in digital assets.
The exchange discovered the breach early on November 2 and immediately froze all deposits and withdrawals as a preventive measure. "We identified and quickly contained a security incident in one of our systems early this morning," Mercado Bitcoin stated in a Portuguese-language post on X. "As a preventive protection measure, deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended."
Despite the significant financial impact, Mercado Bitcoin assured customers that their assets are safe. "Os ativos dos clientes estão garantidos," the exchange wrote, translating to Client assets are guaranteed. The company emphasized that customer balances remain intact in their respective accounts and that no personal data was compromised in the attack.
The exact amount stolen remains unclear, with varying estimates from different security firms. Mercado Bitcoin itself reported losses of approximately $38 million, while Hypernative flagged more than $40 million in suspicious transfers across at least 10 blockchains. Arkham analysts traced at least $46 million, and Chainalysis estimated about $49 million, with nearly $10 million already frozen.
Recovery Efforts Underway
The exchange has been working with strategic partners including Tether, Circle, Paxos, and Chainalysis to recover stolen funds. After a quick action with the crypto community and strategic partners, we have already blocked $11 million, Mercado Bitcoin announced. Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that more than $4.5 million in USDT stablecoins tied to the incident had been frozen.
Industry Context
The hack comes just days after Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a $6 billion theft that the FBI attributed to North Korea's TraderTraitor group. Like Mercado Bitcoin, Binance pledged to absorb the financial impact rather than passing losses to customers, reporting that about 95% of affected assets had been replenished.
Neither exchange has specified how the attackers gained access to their systems. Mercado Bitcoin has not linked its incident to the Binance hack. For now, all deposits and withdrawals remain suspended at Mercado Bitcoin with no announced date for resumption. The exchange has committed to providing updates on X and will only resume services once full security is restored.
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