Brazil's Biggest Crypto Exchange Freezes Withdrawals After $40M Hack

Mercado Bitcoin paused deposits and withdrawals after a security breach. It says no customers lost money.

Brazil's largest crypto exchange just hit pause. Mercado Bitcoin — a platform where people buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin — suspended all deposits and withdrawals on Monday after discovering a security incident (a hack or break-in into its computer systems) in the early hours of the morning.

The company says it acted fast to contain the problem and reassured users on two key points:

No customer lost any money
No personal data was leaked

As a safety step, the exchange temporarily froze the ability to move money in or out. There's no date yet for when things will reopen.

How big was the hack? A blockchain security firm called Hypernative (a company that tracks suspicious crypto movements) flagged more than $40 million in questionable transfers. These funds reportedly moved across at least 10 different blockchains (the digital networks that record crypto transactions), including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Tron. Important note: Mercado Bitcoin has not officially confirmed this $40 million figure or explained how the attackers got in.

One silver lining: Tether, the company behind USDT (a "stablecoin" — a crypto designed to always be worth $1), said it froze over 4.5 million USDT linked to the hack. Tether can "blacklist" certain wallet addresses, meaning the stolen tokens can't be moved. However, freezing them does not automatically return the money to its owners.

This isn't an isolated event. Just days earlier, on October 29, hackers drained over $6 billion from Binance (one of the world's biggest exchanges). The FBI blamed a North Korean hacking group. Binance has since reopened withdrawals and replaced about 95% of the stolen assets. So far, Mercado Bitcoin has not connected its hack to the Binance attack.

Bottom line: If you're new to crypto, this is a reminder that online exchanges can be targets for hackers. While Mercado Bitcoin says customers are safe, the full details are still unclear, and withdrawals remain frozen for now.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://decrypt.co/382341/mercado-bitcoin-halts-withdrawals-40-million-hack