Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin freezes withdrawals after a 40M+ USD drain across 10 chains. Who's next?
Four days after Binance, another exchange hack. Brazil's largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, froze all deposits and withdrawals today after wallets linked to it were drained across at least 10 blockchains. Is this a one-off, or are attackers now working down the exchange list?
What we know (Mon Nov 2):
- Mercado Bitcoin says it "identified and swiftly contained" a security incident overnight, with no customer losses and no data leak. Deposits and withdrawals are paused as a precaution. Bloomberg reports it will absorb all losses.
- Security firm Hypernative estimates more than 40M USD in suspicious outflows. Most of it moved in a 34-minute window (06:19-06:53 UTC), with sweeps of BTC deposit addresses starting at 02:15 UTC. Plain transfers, not a smart contract exploit, so the attacker had signing access somehow.
- Flagged holdings: about 2,852 ETH, 106 BTC, 10,700 SOL and 6.7M XLM plus 200+ other tokens. Arkham groups 36 addresses holding about 46M USD.
- Tether froze more than 4.5M USDT tied to the incident. The exchange published the destination addresses for tracking.
- The exchange has not confirmed a loss figure, which system was hit, or a reopening date. No attribution, and no public link to the Binance attack.
The tape (Binance spot, 16:38 UTC, 24h):
- $BTC 77,464 (-0.8%)
- $ETH 2,270 (+0.1%)
- $SOL 93.53 (-1.2%)
- $XLM 0.1674 (-0.2%)
Context, not cause. 40M USD is small next to the Binance breach, and the majors barely moved. The risk is the pattern: two exchange hot-wallet breaches in one week.
My take: watch whether the 106 BTC and 2,852 ETH start moving toward mixers or bridges, and how fast Mercado reopens. If more exchanges pause withdrawals this week, sentiment (already in fear) takes another hit.
Do you keep anything on an exchange right now, or is it all self-custody after this week?
Source: https://tradeassi.com/en/news/a3cd0b49-8930-4719-a76e-720a7101f941
Not financial advice. DYOR.
Four days after Binance, another exchange hack. Brazil's largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, froze all deposits and withdrawals today after wallets linked to it were drained across at least 10 blockchains. Is this a one-off, or are attackers now working down the exchange list?
What we know (Mon Nov 2):
- Mercado Bitcoin says it "identified and swiftly contained" a security incident overnight, with no customer losses and no data leak. Deposits and withdrawals are paused as a precaution. Bloomberg reports it will absorb all losses.
- Security firm Hypernative estimates more than 40M USD in suspicious outflows. Most of it moved in a 34-minute window (06:19-06:53 UTC), with sweeps of BTC deposit addresses starting at 02:15 UTC. Plain transfers, not a smart contract exploit, so the attacker had signing access somehow.
- Flagged holdings: about 2,852 ETH, 106 BTC, 10,700 SOL and 6.7M XLM plus 200+ other tokens. Arkham groups 36 addresses holding about 46M USD.
- Tether froze more than 4.5M USDT tied to the incident. The exchange published the destination addresses for tracking.
- The exchange has not confirmed a loss figure, which system was hit, or a reopening date. No attribution, and no public link to the Binance attack.
The tape (Binance spot, 16:38 UTC, 24h):
- $BTC 77,464 (-0.8%)
- $ETH 2,270 (+0.1%)
- $SOL 93.53 (-1.2%)
- $XLM 0.1674 (-0.2%)
Context, not cause. 40M USD is small next to the Binance breach, and the majors barely moved. The risk is the pattern: two exchange hot-wallet breaches in one week.
My take: watch whether the 106 BTC and 2,852 ETH start moving toward mixers or bridges, and how fast Mercado reopens. If more exchanges pause withdrawals this week, sentiment (already in fear) takes another hit.
Do you keep anything on an exchange right now, or is it all self-custody after this week?
Source: https://tradeassi.com/en/news/a3cd0b49-8930-4719-a76e-720a7101f941
Not financial advice. DYOR.