Mercado Bitcoin to absorb $40m breach loss and says customers are safe

In short

• Mercado Bitcoin confirmed on 2 November 2026 that an attacker breached one of its systems and paused deposits and withdrawals.

• Bloomberg reported the Brazilian exchange will absorb a $40m loss and expects customers to face no losses.

• The exchange's own post put assets involved at about $38m, with $11m already frozen by Tether, Circle, Paxos, BRL1 and Chainalysis.

• Hypernative estimated more than $40m in suspicious transfers across at least ten blockchains, which Mercado Bitcoin has not confirmed.

What Mercado Bitcoin says happened
How much money was moved?
How the funds were tracked and frozen
What the pause means for Mercado Bitcoin users
How Brazilian traders reacted on X
Key numbers

Questions readers ask
Are Mercado Bitcoin customer funds safe after the hack?
What is Mercado Bitcoin?
When will Mercado Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals reopen?
Our view

Mercado Bitcoin , Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed on 2 November 2026 that an attacker breached one of its systems and forced the exchange to pause deposits and withdrawals as a precaution. The exchange's own post put the assets involved at about $38m, with $11m already blocked, while Bloomberg and Bloomberg Línea reported Mercado Bitcoin will absorb a $40m loss and expects customers to face no losses. Mercado Bitcoin said the attack targeted its hot wallets, was contained quickly and that no customer data had leaked.

According to a post by Mercado Bitcoin on X, the exchange and partners including Tether, Circle, Paxos, BRL1 and Chainalysis had already blocked $11m of the assets involved. Hypernative, a blockchain security firm, flagged more than $40m in suspicious transfers across at least ten blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron, according to Yahoo Finance. At the time of writing (00:05 UTC on 3 November 2026), Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $76,696, down 2.15% in 24 hours, with a market value of $1.54tn, according to InvestIn.News market data. Entities linked to the hack hold about $46.5m in crypto across 46 addresses, including 3,677 ETH, 106 BTC and about $8m in stablecoins, according to KuCoin, citing Odaily Planet Daily.

According to Yahoo Finance and Odaily, Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino posted on X that his firm had frozen in excess of 4.5 million USDT tied to the breach. Yahoo Finance explained that Tether can blacklist wallets holding its dollar-pegged token, preventing the coins from being transferred, although such a freeze does not on its own give the funds back to their owner. The breach occurred days after more than $6bn was taken from Binance on 29 October, but according to Yahoo Finance Mercado Bitcoin has not drawn a connection between the two.

Mercado Bitcoin's users could not deposit or withdraw funds while the exchange kept services paused on 2 November 2026. The exchange said no customer funds were lost and no personal information was exposed, but it has not given a date for resuming deposits and withdrawals, according to Yahoo Finance and Bitcoin Magazine. Users can follow Mercado Bitcoin's posts on X for regular updates.

On X, some traders said the promise that customers will not incur losses was an undertaking rather than a proven fact. Adam Healy (@Adam_T_H) said on X that funds leaving across more than ten chains at once usually points to a shared withdrawal or signing service, not one wallet. Web3 lawyer chief barrister (@Web3Counsels) said on X that under Brazil's Law 14.478/2022, Mercado Bitcoin answers to the Banco Central, and SSP Wallet (@SSPWallet_io) argued self-custody does not need such a promise. Dickson (@DicksonWuML) said on X that he had traced $49m stolen and $6m frozen so far.

Mercado Bitcoin has not given a date for resuming deposits and withdrawals, and it said it will post regular updates on X, according to Yahoo Finance and Bitcoin Magazine. The exchange is investigating the incident, tracing the assets and working with authorities and relevant partners, according to PYMNTS. It has also published destination addresses from the incident on Bitcoin, Ethereum-compatible networks, Solana, Stellar and Tron so others can track the funds on-chain, according to Yahoo Finance.

Mercado Bitcoin said on 2 November 2026 that no customer funds were lost and no personal data leaked. Bloomberg and MSN reported the exchange will absorb the $40m loss from the hack, and Mercado Bitcoin's own post said it had already blocked $11m with Tether, Circle, Paxos, BRL1 and Chainalysis.

Mercado Bitcoin is Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange. It paused deposits and withdrawals on 2 November 2026 after a security breach, and its own post put the assets involved at about $38m with $11m already blocked.

Mercado Bitcoin has not given a date for resuming deposits and withdrawals, according to Yahoo Finance and Bitcoin Magazine. The exchange said it will post regular updates on X, and customers can follow its official account.

At InvestIn.News, we think the key distinction is between what Mercado Bitcoin has promised and what on-chain data has yet to prove. The exchange's statement that customers will not incur losses is an undertaking, not an audited fact; the $40m or $38m must ultimately come from reserves or the balance sheet. Multi-chain outflows across at least ten blockchains, days after the Binance breach, raise a serious operational question about whether a shared withdrawal or signing service was compromised. If that proves true, the incident is broader than one hot wallet and may affect how other exchanges protect similar infrastructure. We will treat any attribution to North Korea or another actor as unverified unless Brazilian authorities or the exchange confirm it.

How we reported this: this story draws on reporting by Mercado Bitcoin (@MercadoBitcoin) on X, bloomberg.com, msn.com, Yahoo Finance and PYMNTS.com and 3 more, 8 public posts shown in the story and InvestIn.News market data. Each source is linked in the text and listed under Sources.

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What to watch: Mercado Bitcoin has not given a date for resuming deposits and withdrawals; it said it will post regular updates on X.