Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s leading cryptocurrency exchange and a Ripple blockchain payments partner, has temporarily frozen cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals following confirmation of a security breach.
The company stated in an official statement that this security incident caused no harm to users and did not result in the exposure of their personal data.
Mercado Bitcoin stated: "This morning, we identified and quickly mitigated a security issue in one of our systems."
Mercado Bitcoin emphasized that this incident did not harm any customers or result in a data breach.
However, as a precautionary measure, the company has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while its security team investigates the issue and attempts to identify any potentially affected assets.
In addition, Mercado Bitcoin stated that it is cooperating with relevant authorities to investigate the matter.
Mercado Bitcoin discloses suspicious wallet addresses
In the latest update, Mercado Bitcoin stated that it is still working to resume normal operations.
The exchange said: "We are still working to safely restore operations and will continue to update customers through official channels."
Notably, the company also disclosed several cryptocurrency wallet addresses associated with suspicious transactions related to this incident.
This initiative aims to assist blockchain investigators and other industry participants in tracking potentially affected assets across different networks.
According to preliminary analysis shared by the blockchain security firm Hypernative, the incident allegedly involved over $40 million in suspicious cryptocurrency transactions across multiple blockchain networks.
The list includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Tron (TRX), Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Smart Chain, and Stellar (XLM).
Meanwhile, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that over 4.5 million USDT associated with this security incident have been frozen by the stablecoin issuer.
Mercado Bitcoin's partnership with Ripple
Mercado Bitcoin is well known for its close collaboration with Ripple, a blockchain company headquartered in San Francisco.
In October 2024, Ripple announced that Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin would become its first customer to use its custodial end-to-end payment solution in Brazil.
This partnership aims to support cross-border transactions between Brazil and Portugal and optimize fund management operations.
In addition, Ripple stated that the two parties plan to further expand the service to enable both business and retail users of Mercado Bitcoin to use international payment features.