Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin is letting customers see their accounts again a week after a hack that took an estimated $49 million, but it has not said when they can take money out.
MoneyTurkey Crypto Desk | 9 November 2026
Key points
- Mercado Bitcoin started restoring read-only account access in phases from 19:00 London time on Monday, with all accounts due to be viewable by 21:00, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph.
- Customers will see balances as they stood on 2 November, the day of the hack.
- The exchange has given no date for withdrawals and says it will cover the losses with its own funds.
What happened
The reopening is the first step back for one of Brazil’s biggest crypto exchanges, which told Veja magazine in late October that it had more than 4.8 million customers and had handled over 215 billion reais ($39 billion) in cumulative transactions.
In a video on the exchange’s X account, vice president of new business Fabricio Tota said the read-only phase is meant to reassure customers that their assets are still recorded, and that the company chose “a more conservative approach” to bringing accounts back. He said nearly all customer assets were never touched by the incident.
Before funds can move, customers will have to confirm their registration details. Withdrawals will then return through Pix, Brazil’s instant payment system, at first only to accounts in the customer’s own name. Tota gave no date for either step.
The money
Mercado Bitcoin pledged on 4 November to cover all losses from company funds, helped by a $20 million investment from Tether in July. Part of the stolen money was frozen within hours of the attack being announced. Blockchain data firm Bitquery found that, as of 4 November, wallets it linked to the attacker still held most of the funds that escaped freezing, including 106.07 bitcoin.
The exchange has not explained how the attackers got into its wallets. Security analysts have said the funds left through ordinary transfers rather than a smart-contract exploit, Cointelegraph reported.
Why it matters
Brazil is one of Latin America’s largest crypto markets, and a week-long freeze at a major local exchange tests customer trust. Visible balances and a funding pledge ease the immediate fear of losses, but customers still cannot reach their money, and the cause of the breach is unexplained.
What to watch
- A date for withdrawals to restart through Pix
- Mercado Bitcoin’s explanation of how its wallets were breached
- Whether more of the 106.07 bitcoin held by attacker-linked wallets is frozen
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