Brazil’s Largest Crypto Exchange Hit by Cyberattack as Losses Top $45M

Mercado Bitcoin has operated since 2013 and built its position as Brazil's largest exchange partly on trust in custodial safekeeping, the same promise every centralized platform makes after FTX. PIX, the Central Bank's instant payment rail, is the backbone Brazilians use to fund crypto accounts, which is why a rail problem at Kraken lands the same week as a drained hot wallet at Mercado. The $45 million loss joins a run of breaches logged over the past month.

Mercado Bitcoin's customers cannot withdraw funds and have no published date for when that changes, leaving deposits effectively locked regardless of the refund pledge. Traders who hold balances on the platform must wait on the company's own timeline rather than move assets elsewhere. Kraken users sending or receiving reais through PIX face separate, unrelated delays, meaning Brazilian crypto users are contending with friction on two major platforms at once, through no fault of their own trading decisions. (per decrypt.co)

A pledge to make customers whole after a $40 million-plus breach is reassuring, but it also underlines how much ordinary users depend on an exchange's balance sheet and goodwill rather than on-chain guarantees. Crypto's original pitch was removing that kind of counterparty trust; a hot wallet breach followed by a corporate promise to cover losses is the opposite of self-custody, even when the company keeps its word. Repeated incidents like this one erode confidence in custodial platforms generally, not just the one breached.

Mercado Bitcoin has not set a date for restarting withdrawals, so the next concrete marker is whenever the exchange issues that restart notice or details how the refund will be funded and distributed. Kraken logged its PIX investigation on November 3 and has not confirmed a resolution time with its payment provider. Either announcement, or continued silence past these points, will show whether both companies can match their public assurances with actual execution.

BitcoinBTC market event: it is read against the reference

The move was larger before the first headline than after. That is an observation, not an explanation: the market also moves on things nobody publishes.