Phased Restoration of Customer Access
Brazilian cryptocurrency platform Mercado Bitcoin has announced that it will start granting customers back access to their accounts on Monday, following a security incident that on-chain researchers have valued at over $46 million in drained digital assets.
According to a statement issued to Cointelegraph, the first phase will allow users to log in via the company's web portal and review their account balances, transaction history, asset holdings, and investment positions. The ability to move funds, execute withdrawals, and place trades will be reintroduced in subsequent stages, contingent upon the completion of third-party security assessments.
Covering Losses and Freezing Stolen Funds
The exchange further committed to making good on the assets lost to the intrusion from its own treasury, noting that over $15 million of the misappropriated capital had already been immobilized with assistance from other industry participants.
"The company's trading unit is gearing up to execute the repurchase of lost assets across both domestic and global markets," the statement read, signaling an active effort to rebuild affected customer balances before full trading operations resume.
Breach Details and Financial Backing
The announcement came after the platform revealed on Monday that unauthorized actors had moved cryptocurrency out of its hot wallets and from customer deposit addresses using conventional on-chain transfer mechanisms. The attack exploited standard wallet-to-wallet transfers rather than smart-contract vulnerabilities, according to the exchange's disclosure.
On the liquidity front, Mercado Bitcoin indicated it maintains a robust cash reserve, reinforced by a $20 million capital injection from Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, earmarked for operational growth. The exchange said this additional backing strengthens its capacity to absorb the financial impact of the breach while it works through the multi-phase restoration process.