Mercado Bitcoin Will Shoulder $40 Million Loss After Hot-Wallet Hack

What happened at Mercado Bitcoin

The Brazilian crypto broker said hackers hit its hot wallets on Monday, but the incident was brought under control quickly. As a safety step, the company briefly shut off access to the Mercado Bitcoin app, adding that no customer data was disclosed.

The company plans to absorb a $40 million loss and does not expect customers to be out of pocket. It is investigating, tracing the assets involved, and working with authorities and relevant partners.

The wider wave of attacks and Binance

The Mercado Bitcoin incident followed closely on the heels of an assault on Binance attributed to North Korean hackers, a record $6.4 billion exploit that was first spotted on Thursday evening. By Monday morning in London, net withdrawals from Binance reached $4.7 billion, according to a company spokesperson.

Binance froze withdrawals after the exploit, then restored them on Sunday. The company said it would make customers whole and had fixed roughly 95% of the total as of Sunday.

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What this means for your portfolio

For now, Mercado Bitcoin says clients should not face losses, while the probe and asset tracing continue. Binance, meanwhile, emphasized it would make customers whole and moved to reopen withdrawals quickly.

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