Mercado Bitcoin to cover client losses from hack; damage estimates range from $38M to $49M

Brazil's largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, says customers will not bear losses from the hack of its systems on 2 November. Deposits and withdrawals are suspended with no date set for resumption. The exchange announced this in Portuguese on X. The incident came just days after the theft of more than $6 billion from Binance, which the FBI has linked to the North Korean group TraderTraitor. For the market, it is another case of a major exchange losing customer assets and having to explain who will cover the losses.

How much was stolen

Estimates of the damage differ. The exchange itself puts it at around $38 million. According to Hypernative, suspicious transfers exceed $40 million and span at least ten blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron. Arkham counts at least $46 million, while Chainalysis puts it at around $49 million, of which nearly $10 million has been frozen. Mercado Bitcoin says that, with the participation of Tether, Circle, Paxos, BRL1 and Chainalysis, it has already blocked $11 million. It is unclear whether the frozen amount is included in the exchange's $38 million estimate.

What the exchange promises

The exchange says client balances are intact and customers have not lost any funds. It says there was no data leak. The company has not yet disclosed how the attackers gained access to its system. Binance CEO Richard Teng made a similar promise earlier: he said the exchange will take on the financial consequences, and about 95% of the affected assets have already been restored. Mercado Bitcoin does not link its incident to the attack on Binance.

Asset freezes and their limits

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has frozen more than $4.5 million linked to the incident, CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X. As Decrypt notes, a freeze only stops tokens from moving and does not return them to their owner, so the exchange's promise to cover losses remains the central question. It cannot be verified from the outside: exchanges are not required to disclose their financial reporting to clients, and a guarantee is only as strong as the money behind it.

When service will resume

There is no date for resuming operations. The exchange says it will post updates on X and will restore the service after security is fully restored. Until then, customers cannot deposit or withdraw funds from the platform.