São Paulo$40 million left Mercado Bitcoin wallets across 10 chains.
Security firms estimate the loss, and the Brazilian exchange froze all deposits and withdrawals Monday.
Plain transactions, not a smart contract exploit, moved the funds, and how the attacker gained signing access is unknown.
Mercado Bitcoin says it will absorb the loss and expects no customer losses.
Withdrawals stay paused, no one has been blamed, and no public evidence ties the theft to the Binance hack.
How each outlet framed it
- CoinDesk leans critical
- notes that the attacker holds the swept funds in named token balances and that the transfers were plain transactions, not a smart-contract exploit
- Bloomberg Business leans critical
Sources: CoinDesk, Bloomberg Business