Mercado Bitcoin hacked: $46M loss amid ongoing cyber risks

• Security breach at Brazil’s top crypto exchange drained $46 million across multiple blockchains
• $6.2 million frozen by stablecoin issuers; ongoing fund movements and renewed scrutiny of infrastructure security

On November 3, 2026 (UTC), CoinDesk reported that Mercado Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Brazil, suffered a substantial security breach with more than $46 million drained from company wallets. The exchange paused all deposits and withdrawals in response. Despite the suspension, blockchain analysts observed continued movement of funds from compromised addresses for several hours.

The attack impacted multiple blockchain networks: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Tron. Analysts tracked thousands of small Ethereum transfers conducted from over 27,000 addresses. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze approximately $6.2 million of stolen assets, as noted by Cointelegraph and KuCoin News.

Attackers rapidly transferred around $20 million in assets into newly created wallets, while an additional $20 million—including all 106 stolen Bitcoin—remained in addresses flagged by the exchange. Blockchain data indicated no exploitation of smart contract vulnerabilities; instead, the breach resulted from standard on-chain transfers, pointing to a wallet or infrastructure compromise rather than a protocol-level flaw.

Mercado Bitcoin stated that no customer funds or personal data were lost during the breach. Still, further fund movement after withdrawal suspension raised doubts about the effectiveness of the exchange’s infrastructure isolation and control, especially with customer deposit addresses among affected wallets, as detailed by Certik’s post-mortem.

The incident followed closely after a historic $6.3 billion hack targeting Binance, with the FBI linking North Korea’s TraderTraitor group as the likely perpetrators. These high-profile breaches underscore ongoing security risks and diminishing trust in centralized exchanges across Latin America and globally.

The market saw volatility among coins and tokens associated with the affected exchanges. On-chain controls by stablecoin issuers enabled partial freezes but did not facilitate full recovery of stolen assets. Regulatory pressure on exchanges and the move toward self-custody have intensified in response to these events.