Mercado Bitcoin Halts Withdrawals After $40M Outflows
Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals after more than $40 million moved from wallets linked to the Brazilian crypto exchange, according to security firm Hypernative. The transfers appeared authorized and spanned at least 10 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron. Mercado Bitcoin has not confirmed that all the source wallets belonged to the exchange or disclosed a total loss.
Neutral
The incident may create short-term caution around exchange access and custody, particularly while Mercado Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals remain paused. Hypernative estimated that more than $40 million moved, but Mercado Bitcoin says it contained the incident, customers suffered no losses and no customer data was leaked. Tether froze USDT at two destination addresses—about 708,243 USDT on Tron and more than 3 million USDT on Ethereum. Around 106 BTC also reached a reported destination address and had not moved as of 14:50 UTC. These details could temper immediate concern, but the exchange has not confirmed wallet ownership or the total loss, and the investigation remains ongoing. The reports also cited a separate Binance hot-wallet loss and temporary withdrawal halt, reinforcing wider exchange-security concerns; that does not establish market contagion. For BTC, ETH, SOL and other named assets, the event could prompt brief risk aversion, but there is no evidence here of a direct impact on their fundamentals or prices. The overall market view is therefore neutral, with traders likely to monitor service updates and any evidence of further fund movements.