Mercado Bitcoin Estimates $36.3 Million in Affected Assets After Blockchain Analysis Tracks Transfers
Key Facts
Mercado Bitcoin estimated that $36.3 million in assets were affected by the breach of its hot wallets, according to an update reported by Decrypt as of November 5, 2026, and pledged to restore the assets using its own resources. The estimate follows the platform’s announcement that it had contained the incident, while Chainalysis said its efforts had led to $4 million in stolen assets being frozen by the morning of November 2, and then $9 million over the following hours. Chainalysis said it continued to track the remaining funds and monitor their movements for further opportunities to intervene. The figures reflect two different measures of the incident: the platform’s estimate of affected assets and the amounts analytics firms said they helped freeze. Mercado Bitcoin said no customer would lose assets and that balances would remain recorded in their accounts.
Mercado Bitcoin said in a November 2 update that the incident affected its hot wallets and that it had blocked about $11 million, while about $38 million remained unblocked at the time. The company presented those figures as the status of the funds in that update, and later reported an estimate of about $36.3 million in affected assets as of November 5. The difference reflects the timing of the updates and what each figure describes: an amount the platform said had been blocked and what remained unblocked, compared with its later estimate of affected assets. Separately, Chainalysis said the total freeze linked to its work reached $9 million over the hours following the morning of November 2. The company added that it coordinated with law enforcement and stablecoin issuers to track the funds.
Mercado Bitcoin pledged to reimburse customers for affected assets from its own resources, saying balances would remain recorded in their accounts. The company said: "No customer will lose assets." It added that the assets linked to the incident would be restored using its own resources. The pledge sets out the platform’s position on customer balances, alongside the fund-tracking measures announced by analytics firms. The information provided did not specify when the restoration of assets would be completed. The company also kept the restoration of account functions phased and tied to the completion of security checks.
Mercado Bitcoin set November 9, 2026, as the start of the first phase of restoring access to the platform through its website. The phase will include previews of balances, account statements and investments, according to the company’s update. Transfers, withdrawals and trading will return in a later phase, after final security checks. The announced date therefore applies to viewing information and accounts; it does not mean funds can be moved or trading can resume that day. The platform said the restoration of these services would depend on completion of the security checks.
On fund tracking, Chainalysis said it would continue monitoring movements and identifying further opportunities to intervene, after announcing coordination with law enforcement and stablecoin issuers. CoinDesk reported that the same attacker took about $391,000 from wallets Bitquery linked to BitMart, whose founder said it had been hacked on November 2 and suspected a connection to the attack on Mercado Bitcoin. CoinDesk attributed the figure to Bitquery’s estimate for wallets linked to BitMart. Chainalysis’s next announced step remains tracking the remaining funds and monitoring their movements. For Mercado Bitcoin, the next scheduled milestone is the start of account previews on November 9, followed by the resumption of operational services after final verification.