Mercado Bitcoin Reports More Than $46 Million Stolen as Funds Keep Moving

Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin said a security incident moved more than $46 million in cryptocurrency from its wallets Monday, while connected addresses continued transferring funds after the company paused deposits and withdrawals.

At 11:42 a.m. ET (16:42 UTC), about $6.2 million in stolen assets had been frozen by stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle. Roughly $20 million had moved to newly created wallets, and more than $20 million remained in addresses Mercado Bitcoin linked to the incident, including all 106 Bitcoin (BTC).

After the exchange’s deposit and withdrawal suspension had been in place for several hours, thousands of small Ether (ETH) transfers also flowed into one address. Security firms described the theft as the result of ordinary transfers rather than a smart-contract exploit.

Mercado Bitcoin said customers had suffered no losses and no data had been exposed. The investigation was still underway, and no organized group had been identified so far.