Mercado Bitcoin, a Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange, temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals after reporting a security incident in one of its systems during the early hours of Monday, November 2, 2026.
In a post on X, the company said there had been no losses for customers and no data leak. Its teams are investigating the incident, tracking the assets involved and coordinating measures with the relevant authorities, according to the statement.
Two hours after the initial announcement, Mercado Bitcoin said it would continue updating customers through its official channels. The exchange also published destination addresses identified in transactions associated with the incident to support monitoring and asset tracking on blockchain networks. The addresses cover EVM, Bitcoin, Solana, Stellar and Tron networks, and were shared solely for identification and tracking purposes.
The company said it was working to restore operations safely. Olhar Digital contacted Mercado Bitcoin requesting further information about the incident.
The suspension comes days after Binance was targeted in what the original report described as the largest hacker attack in the cryptocurrency sector. According to the FBI and analysts cited by the report, North Korean hackers stole US$6.3 billion in cryptocurrencies from the exchange on October 29.
Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals after the attack and partially resumed them on November 1. During that day, customers withdrew approximately US$4.6 billion and deposited US$1 billion in cryptocurrencies. The exchange said the net outflow represented 2.1% of the assets held on its platform and that it had assembled US$6 billion to cover the losses, using company funds, an insurance fund and a reserve for security incidents.
Micaella Ribeiro, co-founder of IAM Brasil and an information security and identity and access management specialist, said the cases reflect a change in the digital threat landscape. She stressed that an attack on a cryptocurrency exchange does not necessarily mean the blockchain technology itself was compromised, since the security of the blockchain differs from that of the platforms used to buy, sell and store digital assets.
According to Ribeiro, the incident also highlights the growing focus of criminals on identities, devices and systems that already have legitimate authorization to carry out critical operations.
Sources: Olhar Digital.