Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, suspended deposits and withdrawals on Monday after wallets tied to the platform were drained. The exchange said on X that it had “identified and swiftly contained a security incident in one of our systems early this morning,” adding that customers were not affected and no data breach occurred. It described the pause as precautionary and published destination addresses to help others trace the funds.
The loss figures differ by source. CoinDesk reports that security firms estimate more than $40 million was drained across at least 10 blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, BSC and Stellar. The Block gives about $46.3 million, attributed to Arkham data, and does not name the chains. The gap probably reflects different tracking methods and cut-off times, but neither outlet reconciles the two, and Mercado Bitcoin has not confirmed a total.
CoinDesk, citing a report relayed by Opsek founder Pablo Sabbatella, says the largest outflows came between 06:19 and 06:53 UTC and were plain transfers rather than a smart contract exploit. How the attacker obtained signing access is unknown. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that more than $4.5 million in USDT linked to the incident was frozen. Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic said the attacker was sweeping older deposit addresses and selling memecoins and other altcoins.
CoinDesk notes that no one has been blamed and there is no public evidence linking the breach to the recent Binance hack.
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Sources:
CoinDesk: Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin halts withdrawals after $40 million drained across 10 chains
The Block: Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, hit by $46 million security breach
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