The short version
- Mercado Bitcoin hack: Brazil’s largest exchange says about $38 million in crypto was taken early on November 2, and $11 million of it is already frozen.
- Deposits and withdrawals are still paused, the exchange says no client will lose assets, and the attacker still holds about $9 million in altcoins such as PEPE, AAVE and PENDLE.
- Next: the date Mercado Bitcoin turns withdrawals back on. We’ll post it on Base Camp on X as soon as the exchange names it.
The Mercado Bitcoin hack makes it two big exchange breaches in a week. Brazil’s largest crypto exchange says about $38 million in crypto was taken in the early hours of Monday, November 2. Deposits and withdrawals are still switched off, and $11 million of the haul is already frozen.
Mercado Bitcoin says no client will lose any assets. Onchain tracker Lookonchain puts the theft higher, at more than $46 million.
Here is the exchange’s update from late Monday, in Portuguese:
Neste momento o valor dos ativos envolvidos é de cerca de US$ 38 milhões. Em ação rápida com a comunidade cripto e parceiros estratégicos – incluindo Tether, Circle, Paxos, BRL1 e Chainalysis, já bloqueamos US$ 11 milhões. Outros valores passíveis de bloqueio já foram
What Happened at Mercado Bitcoin?
The Mercado Bitcoin hack started overnight, when an attacker got into “one of our systems” and moved crypto out to wallets on five networks. Mercado Bitcoin posted its first statement at 12:56 UTC (9:56 a.m. in São Paulo), saying the incident was contained, no customer data leaked and deposits and withdrawals were paused as a precaution. It hasn’t said how the attacker got in.
Ninety minutes later it published the attacker’s addresses on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and TRON so other platforms could block them. The Bitcoin address took in 106.07 BTC, most of it in one transfer at 06:41 UTC (3:41 a.m. in São Paulo). That is about $8.2 million at the time of writing, and none of it has moved since.
At 23:17 UTC the exchange put the total at about $38 million and said it had blocked $11 million with help from Tether, Circle, Paxos, the Brazilian real stablecoin BRL1 and Chainalysis. It says more funds that can be blocked have been found.
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How Much of the Mercado Bitcoin Hack Has Been Frozen?
Mercado Bitcoin says $11 million, and the stablecoin part is easy to check. Tether has blacklisted the attacker’s Ethereum address, which still holds 3.06 million USDT that can no longer be moved. Stablecoins are the part of a hack that issuers can stop. Bitcoin and most altcoins can’t be frozen the same way.
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That leaves a pile of altcoins in the attacker’s hands. Lookonchain lists seven positions worth about $1 million to $1.8 million each:
Another exchange, @MercadoBitcoin, has been hacked for over $46M!
Over $9M in stolen assets has already been frozen.
The hacker still holds the following altcoins, which could face selling pressure:
372.99B $PEPE ($1.79M)
12.82K $AAVE ($1.61M)
769.95K $PENDLE ($1.35M)
29.83K
The biggest are 373 billion PEPE ($1.79 million), 12,820 AAVE ($1.61 million) and 769,950 PENDLE ($1.35 million), plus EVA, VIRTUAL, UNI and ONDO. The same Ethereum address also holds 4.9 million ENA. Lookonchain counts $9 million frozen so far, a little below the exchange’s own number.
Will Mercado Bitcoin Clients Get Their Money Back?
The exchange says yes. “You will not lose any assets because of the security incident,” its late Monday update reads, and services come back only “once there are full security conditions.” There is no date yet for Mercado Bitcoin withdrawals to reopen. The exchange says the timing will be shared only on its official channels.
That last line matters. Hacks bring fake support accounts and “recovery” offers fast, so ignore anyone who messages you about your balance.
The timing is awkward too. Mercado Bitcoin, which counts 4.8 million clients, applied for its license as a virtual asset broker with Brazil’s central bank on October 28. Two days later it told customers its platform was running normally while the Binance hack played out.
What It Means for the Coins the Hacker Holds
This Brazil crypto exchange hack could still reach the wider market. Lookonchain warns those altcoins “could face selling pressure” if the attacker dumps them. A $1 million to $2 million sale is small next to AAVE’s or UNI’s daily trading, so the risk is a sharp wick rather than a trend. AAVE is down 6.3% and PENDLE 4.8% over the last 24 hours at the time of writing, though the whole market is red, with Bitcoin down 1.9% at $77,050.
What decides the next move is simple: whether the remaining coins hit an exchange that freezes them, or a swap that doesn’t.
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TheCryptoMonk has been trading since 2017 and reads the market from the top down. The focus is macro and the high timeframes: where stocks, rates and liquidity are heading, and what the weekly and monthly charts say about Bitcoin. Short-term noise matters less than the bigger trend.
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