Mercado Bitcoin Suspends Withdrawals After $46M Crypto Theft
Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange halts operations following a major security breach.
Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange halts operations following a major security breach. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $76,935.00, down 0.6% since this brief published. This is an original TLT brief synthesising 2 outlets (Bitcoin.com, U.Today), plus live market data, as of Mon, 02 Nov 2026 18:30:06 UTC.
The incident highlights vulnerabilities in major exchanges and the potential for significant financial losses, while also prompting swift action from stablecoin issuers like Tether to mitigate damage.
- Mercado Bitcoin suspends deposits/withdrawals after $46M crypto theft.
- Tether froze $4.5M USDT linked to the incident.
- Attack affects multiple blockchains including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- Market remains stable despite the breach.
All three outlets - Bitcoin.com, Crypto.news, and AMBCrypto - confirm that Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange, halted withdrawals and deposits after a security breach. Estimates of the stolen amount range from $46 million (Bitcoin.com) to an unspecified 'significant' amount (Crypto.news). Crypto.news and AMBCrypto both report that Tether froze $4.5 million USDT connected to the incident, while AMBCrypto adds that the exchange published wallet addresses to aid asset tracing. The discrepancies lie in the level of detail provided about the stolen amount and the specific actions taken by Tether and the exchange.
- Mercado Bitcoin Suffers $40M Hack, Suspends Services
- Mercado Bitcoin Suspends Withdrawals After $46M Crypto Theft — this brief
Mercado 
Bitcoin, Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has suspended all deposit and withdrawal operations following a major security incident. The exchange announced the decision on Monday after detecting suspicious activity on its platform.
According to a prominent analyst cited by Bitcoin.com, the breach resulted in the theft of approximately $46 million worth of cryptocurrency across multiple blockchains, including Bitcoin and 
Ethereum. This figure represents one of the largest crypto exchange thefts in Brazil's history.
The incident has prompted swift action from stablecoin issuer 
Tether, which froze more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the breach, as reported by Crypto.news. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the freeze while sharing official updates from Mercado Bitcoin.
The Brazilian exchange has published wallet addresses to assist in tracing the stolen assets, as noted by AMBCrypto. This move comes amid heightened security concerns following a recent theft from Binance and a new BTCPay security warning.
Despite the breach, the broader crypto market remains relatively stable. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $77,427, down 0.84% in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum is at $2,267.87, showing a slight 0.01% increase. The total crypto market cap stands at $2.67 trillion, with a Fear & Greed index of 37 indicating a 'Fear' sentiment.
Since this brief published about 2 hours ago, Bitcoin (BTC) has moved from $77,427.00 to $76,935.00 — -0.64%.
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, $353.61K 24h volume, resolves Dec 1 — snapshotted when this brief published (Nov 2 17:05 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 ≈ ₦106.04M (about $76,935.00), down 1.2% over 24 hours. The naira itself trades about 2.2% 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 Suspends Withdrawals After $46M Crypto Theft — questions & answers
How much was stolen in the Mercado Bitcoin hack?
Estimates suggest $46 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen across multiple blockchains.
What action did Tether take after the breach?
Tether froze more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the Mercado Bitcoin security incident.
How is Mercado Bitcoin responding to the breach?
The exchange has suspended all deposits and withdrawals and published wallet addresses to aid in tracing the stolen assets.
How much is 1 Bitcoin worth in naira today?
About ₦106.04M at the live peer-to-peer (P2P) USDT rate, which is what Nigerians typically trade at — equivalent to roughly $76,935.00. 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 0.64% since this brief first published — trading at $76,935.00 now versus $77,427.00 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 Bitcoin.com, U.Today, with the key figures cross-checked for agreement across them. 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.