Mercado Bitcoin to Resume Fiat Withdrawals Next Week After $49M Hack

Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin will restore deposits and withdrawals in reais via Pix, the country's instant payment system, next week, a company representative told Cointelegraph. The restart comes more than 15 days after an attack drained an estimated $49 million from wallets linked to the exchange.

The resumption carries restrictions. Customers will only be able to withdraw funds to bank accounts held in their own name. Mercado Bitcoin will also credit customer accounts with proceeds from the settlement of fixed income products. Crypto deposits and withdrawals remain suspended, and the exchange has set no date for their return.

What has already been restored?

Mercado Bitcoin, one of Brazil's largest crypto exchanges, began restoring access on Monday — one week after the attack — by letting customers view their accounts in read-only mode. Customers who regain access land on a page detailing the exchange's security measures and regular audits conducted since 2018, alongside a link to a separate account of the incident.

Fabricio Tota, the exchange's vice president of new business, outlined the next phase in a recent video. Mercado Bitcoin has not yet published a rollout schedule on its website.

How gradual will the rollout be?

The company representative described a staged approach rather than a single reopening. "The resumption will proceed gradually, and the rollout of additional services will be communicated to clients in advance through MB's official channels," the representative said.

The operational sequence so far: read-only account visibility first, then Pix-based fiat movement, with crypto rails last and unscheduled. Withdrawing only to same-name accounts functions as a fraud-control measure, limiting the paths stolen credentials could take out of the platform during the recovery window.

Where does the attack sit in the wider breach wave?

The Nov. 2 attack on Mercado Bitcoin landed four days after hackers stole roughly $6.3 billion in crypto from Binance's hot wallets in a separate breach. The FBI attributed the Binance theft to North Korean hackers. Binance said it would cover the losses through its emergency fund and corporate treasury.

The two incidents differ sharply in scale — $49 million versus $6.3 billion — but they share timing that has intensified scrutiny of hot-wallet custody across major exchanges. For Mercado Bitcoin, the immediate business consequence is a split balance sheet of services: fiat rails reopening while crypto transfers, the core product for a trading venue, stay dark.

Customers awaiting crypto withdrawals now watch two channels for timing: Tota's communications and the exchange's official announcements, since no website schedule exists. The next concrete milestone is next week's Pix restart, after which the pace of restoring crypto deposits and withdrawals will determine how quickly Mercado Bitcoin returns to full operation.