Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin Halts Deposits and Withdrawals After Security Breach

Mercado Bitcoin, a major Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange, suspended deposits and withdrawals on November 2 after detecting a security incident in one of its systems. The company said the problem was contained quickly, that customer funds and personal data were unaffected, and that no data breach occurred, but it declined to identify the compromised system, estimate any assets involved, or set a timetable for restoring services. The disclosure came during a heavy week for crypto security, following a Binance breach tied to roughly $6.3 billion in assets, emergency restrictions at Aave, and unauthorized hot-wallet withdrawals reported by BTCPay Server. Bitcoin has held relatively firm through the run of incidents.