Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin has suspended deposits and withdrawals after identifying a security mishap. Blockchain security firm Hypernative has flagged transfers valued at more than $40 million across multiple networks. The platform has confirmed the incident but has not clarified if the funds were stolen or not.

$BTC, $ETH, $SOL among Mercado Bitcoin Compromised Assets

Hypernative has reportedly tracked transactions across at least 10 blockchains, including a transfer of 106 $BTC. Other reported assets included 2,852 $ETH and 10,700 $SOL. The transactions are said to have occurred over roughly 34 minutes, between 06:19 and 06:53 UTC. The figures are estimates based on observed on-chain activity, not confirmed accounting from Mercado Bitcoin.

The exchange said it had detected a security incident and paused deposits and withdrawals. According to reports, Mercado Bitcoin said no data had been leaked and no customers are harmed. This this doesn’t rule out that the exchange funds were not compromised. The company has not verified Hypernative’s estimate or publicly characterized the event as a confirmed hack.

The temporary suspension gives the exchange time to assess activity and safeguard its systems. However, the halt has left users waiting to access or move assets. The company’s assurances and the on-chain estimates describe different aspects of the incident. Hypernative identified large transfers while Mercado Bitcoin has said customers’ funds were not affected. At this stage, the available information does not establish whether the transfers represented a theft, authorized activity, or another kind of security event.

2 Crypto Exchanges Hacked in 2 Weeks

The reported incident comes days after the largest crypto exchange, Binance, was hacked for over $6.5 billion. Like Mercado Bitcoin, Binance had also halted withdrawals for almmost 3 days. When withdrawals are paused, users may have limited ability to independently verify the status of their holdings.

Important details remain unclear. We don’t know how the incident began and who is the attacker. The reported transfer total should therefore be treated as an estimate, not a confirmed loss. Until those details are independently established, it remains premature to describe the event as a confirmed $40 million hack.