Mercado Bitcoin Pauses Operations Amid $40M Hack Investigation
Brazil's largest crypto exchange halts deposits and withdrawals after detecting suspicious transfers totaling $40 million.
Brazil's largest crypto exchange halts deposits and withdrawals after detecting suspicious transfers totaling $40 million. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $77,284.00, down 0.3% since this brief published. This is an original TLT brief based on reporting by Live Bitcoin News, with live market data added, as of Mon, 02 Nov 2026 17:15:02 UTC.
The incident highlights the ongoing security challenges faced by crypto exchanges and the potential impact on user trust and asset safety. Tether's swift action in freezing funds demonstrates the role of stablecoin issuers in incident response.
- Mercado Bitcoin detected a security breach and froze operations to investigate.
- Approximately $40 million in suspicious transfers were identified.
- Tether froze 4.5 million USDT linked to the incident.
- No customer funds are reported as lost at this time.
- Kamino Pauses SOL/BTC Borrowing Amid Binance Hack Concerns
- Mercado Bitcoin Suffers $40M Hack, Suspends Services
- Mercado Bitcoin Pauses Operations Amid $40M Hack Investigation — this brief
Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Mercado 
Bitcoin, has halted all deposit and withdrawal operations following the detection of a security breach. The incident was discovered overnight, and the exchange took immediate action to prevent further unauthorized transactions.
According to reports, the breach resulted in suspicious transfers totaling approximately $40 million. The exchange has not disclosed the exact amount of funds affected but has confirmed that it is investigating the incident. Mercado Bitcoin has assured users that no customer funds have been lost as a result of the breach.
The incident has been corroborated by multiple outlets, with Live Bitcoin News and Crypto.news both reporting the suspension of services and the $40 million figure. Crypto.news further adds that 
Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, has frozen more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the incident. This action was announced by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who shared Mercado Bitcoin's official statement on the matter.
The breach comes at a time when the crypto market is experiencing relative stability, with a total market cap of $2.67 trillion. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is currently trading at $37,488, down 0.56% in the last 24 hours. Tether (USDT) is holding steady at $0.999014, with minimal price movement.
The incident underscores the persistent security challenges faced by crypto exchanges and the importance of robust incident response measures. Tether's quick action in freezing the affected USDT highlights the role of stablecoin issuers in mitigating the impact of such breaches. Mercado Bitcoin will need to provide a detailed account of the incident and its resolution to restore user confidence.
Since this brief published about 2 hours ago, Bitcoin (BTC) has moved from $77,488.00 to $77,284.00 — -0.26%.
The chart plots BTC's price: grey is the move before this brief published, the vertical dashed line marks the moment it published, the horizontal dashed line is the price then, and the coloured area is the move since — from TLT's market data (daily resolution). It shows what happened after the news, not that the news caused it; many factors move prices. Not financial advice.
Will Bitcoin reach $80,000 in November?
Crowd-implied probability on Polymarket, $324.78K 24h volume, resolves Dec 1 — snapshotted when this brief published (Nov 2 16:05 UTC). A market price reflects what traders collectively expect; it is not a forecast by TLT and will have moved since. View the market ↗
At today's peer-to-peer rate, 1 BTC ≈ ₦106.59M (about $77,284.00), down 1.0% over 24 hours. The naira itself trades about 2.3% above the official rate on the P2P market, so a Nigerian buyer's effective cost differs from the headline dollar price.
Live market data
Current prices for the assets in this story — live, source-stamped, updated every 15 minutes.
Figures and sectors in this story, checked live against on-chain aggregators · November 2, 2026.
TLT reads these figures directly from on-chain aggregators (DeFiLlama, mempool.space) at build time — independent of what any outlet reported. Sector totals aggregate every protocol DeFiLlama tracks in that category. Values are live and will change.
Mercado Bitcoin Pauses Operations Amid $40M Hack Investigati — questions & answers
What is Mercado Bitcoin's response to the security breach?
Mercado Bitcoin has suspended deposits and withdrawals and is investigating the incident. The exchange claims no customer funds were lost.
How much money was affected by the breach?
Approximately $40 million in suspicious transfers were identified.
What action did Tether take in response to the incident?
Tether froze more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the Mercado Bitcoin security breach.
How much is 1 Bitcoin worth in naira today?
About ₦106.59M at the live peer-to-peer (P2P) USDT rate, which is what Nigerians typically trade at — equivalent to roughly $77,284.00. The naira price moves with both BTC's US-dollar price and the USDT/NGN rate; use our Bitcoin in naira page for any amount.
Has Bitcoin's price moved since this brief was published?
BTC is down 0.26% since this brief first published — trading at $77,284.00 now versus $77,488.00 at publication. TLT re-checks this figure against CoinGecko and Binance every 15 minutes.
Which outlets reported this story?
This is an original TLT brief that synthesises reporting from Live Bitcoin News. It is not a copy of any one article — follow the source links above for the original reporting.
Original summary — not financial advice. This is an original TLT brief that summarises a development reported elsewhere and adds live market data for context; it is not the original article and reproduces no part of it. Follow the source link above for full details. Crypto is volatile and high-risk — always do your own research.