Mercado Bitcoin wallets keep moving funds after $46M hack

Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, suspended deposits and withdrawals following a security breach that drained over $49 million from its wallets, according to blockchain analysts. Despite the company's announcement, funds continued to be transferred out of affected addresses for hours after the incident. The attackers targeted eight smaller blockchain networks, including Base, Optimism, and Arbitrum, before moving to Mercado Bitcoin's main hot wallets and transferring small amounts of Ether (ETH) from 27,160 different addresses.

Certik's senior security engineer, Dickson Wu, explained that the hack was executed through standard transfers rather than a smart contract exploit. Mercado Bitcoin claimed no customer funds or data were lost, but the company's spokesperson declined to comment further on the ongoing transfers. The hack has not been attributed to a specific group and is still under investigation.

Of the stolen funds, approximately $6.2 million has been frozen by stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, while about $20 million has been transferred into new wallets, and the rest remains in the affected addresses. The breach could trigger notification requirements to Brazil's data protection authority. As of July, Mercado Bitcoin had 4.5 million users, and Tether had invested $20 million to support the exchange's expansion in tokenization, payments, and credit.

This incident follows Binance's recent $6.3 billion hack, which led to the temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals and a pledge to cover customer losses.