Mercado Bitcoin Halts Operations As Tether Freezes 4.5M USDT
Key Summary
Mercado Bitcoin suspended all deposits and withdrawals on November 2 after discovering a breach in one of its systems. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the company froze over 4.5M USDT connected to the exploit. The incident follows a separate $6.3B exploit at Binance and a security advisory issued by BTCPay Server.
Key Bullets
- Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals after detecting a security incident on November 2.
- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the issuer froze more than 4.5M USDT connected to the exploit.
- BTCPay Server released an advisory regarding server vulnerabilities affecting wallets holding spending keys.
- Global market cap hovered around $2.620T while Bitcoin dominance sat at 59.27% amid the incidents.
Mercado Bitcoin Halts All Transfers
Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals across its platform following a security incident detected on November 2. The exchange published destination wallet addresses across Bitcoin, Solana, Stellar, Tron, and Ethereum-compatible networks to trace stolen assets. Exchange executives claimed the breach occurred overnight and that customer data remained secure. Operations stayed offline without any fixed timeline for reopening.
Liquidity vanished immediately. Traders took immediate notice.
Tether Freezes 4.5M USDT Instantly
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed via social media that the stablecoin issuer froze over 4.5M USDT linked to the Mercado Bitcoin exploit. Tether utilizes blacklist functions to block transfers at specific addresses during active investigations. This marked the second major freeze executed by the issuer within a seven-day window following a prior $6.3B exploit targeting Binance wallets on October 29. The ultimate recovery timeline for the frozen funds remains completely unconfirmed by compliance officers.
The freeze hit the order book. Trading desks reacted swiftly.
BTCPay Server Issues Security Warning
BTCPay Server published a security advisory on November 2 after hackers stole Bitcoin and Litecoin from servers running version 2.4. 1 or older. Investigators discovered attackers targeted instances storing spending keys directly on vulnerable web servers. Developers recommended migrating completely to fresh hardware instances rather than attempting local software patches. Hardware wallets keeping keys isolated away from web servers remained completely unaffected by the exploit.
Servers went offline globally. Administrators scrambled for fixes.
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