Mercado Bitcoin, which calls itself the largest digital-asset investment platform in Latin America with about 4.5 million customers, suspended all deposits and withdrawals on Monday, November 2, after a cybersecurity incident. Blockchain security companies told The Record that more than $46 million left the platform late on Sunday night. Mercado Bitcoin has not confirmed that figure and did not respond to The Record’s requests for comment.
In messages on social media, the company said the attack did not harm customers and did not lead to a data breach, that its teams were investigating, tracking the assets and coordinating with the authorities, and that it expects to restore the platform in the coming days. It also published the destination addresses for the stolen funds. Several blockchain security experts disputed the claim that customer funds were untouched, pointing to on-chain evidence that the attackers took money from some customer wallets, per The Record.
Recovery efforts have started: Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company froze about $4.5 million of the stolen funds, and The Record reports another $2 million has been frozen by other platforms. Chainalysis said its investigators are tracking the coins so the industry can identify, freeze and disrupt them. Nothing in The Record’s report says how the attackers got in or who they are. The attack comes days after the Binance security incident, which the FBI and U.S. Secret Service blamed on North Korean hackers, as covered in our report on the FBI’s attribution; The Record does not link the two incidents.