Mercado Bitcoin, one of Brazil’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, says it will restart Brazilian reais deposits and withdrawals via Pix next week—over two weeks after a security incident drained an estimated $49 million from wallets associated with the platform. The restart is limited to fiat Pix flows; crypto deposits and withdrawals remain suspended for now.
According to a company representative speaking to Cointelegraph, the exchange will also allow customers to withdraw only to bank accounts held in their own name. In addition, Mercado Bitcoin plans to credit customer accounts with proceeds from the settlement of fixed-income products, signaling that the company is moving beyond immediate incident response toward a broader customer recovery process.
Key takeaways
- Pix fiat access resumes next week, more than 15 days after the estimated $49 million breach impacted Mercado Bitcoin-linked wallets.
- Withdrawals will be restricted to “own-name” accounts, limiting how customers can move funds out of the exchange.
- Crypto deposits and withdrawals stay suspended, with no firm return date provided.
- Customers may receive additional credits related to fixed-income product settlements.
- Rollout will be gradual, with further service updates communicated through Mercado Bitcoin’s official channels.
Fiat withdrawals via Pix return, but crypto access remains paused
The plan focuses on Brazilian real liquidity through Pix, Brazil’s widely used instant payment system. Mercado Bitcoin told Cointelegraph that it will resume both deposits and withdrawals via Pix next week, but without reopening crypto transfers. That distinction matters for traders and holders because it limits flexibility: users who need to move funds in or out of crypto markets will remain constrained until the exchange restores on-chain deposit and withdrawal capability.
The exchange is also setting a compliance-oriented boundary on withdrawals. Under the restart, customers will only be able to withdraw to accounts bearing their own names. For affected users, this likely reduces friction at the bank transfer stage but may require some to adjust which account they use for withdrawals.
On top of the Pix return, Mercado Bitcoin said it will credit customer accounts with proceeds stemming from the settlement of fixed income products. That step suggests the exchange is treating part of customer recovery as an asset-management and settlement issue—not just a payment-system restoration.
Read-only account access and a staged recovery approach
Mercado Bitcoin said it began restoring access on Monday, allowing customers to view their accounts in read-only mode. This came a week after the attack, and the read-only phase was designed to let users regain visibility into balances while the exchange continued security work.
For customers who regain access, Mercado Bitcoin directs them to information describing its security measures and ongoing audits conducted since 2018, along with a separate account of the incident itself. In a video outlining the next phase, Fabricio Tota, Mercado Bitcoin’s vice president of new business, indicated that the next steps will be incremental.
As the representative told Cointelegraph, “The resumption will proceed gradually, and the rollout of additional services will be communicated to clients in advance through MB’s official channels.” The exchange has not yet published a detailed rollout schedule on its website, which leaves an important timing uncertainty for users waiting for crypto operations to return.
What happened: the Nov. 2 incident and a broader regional security backdrop
The Nov. 2 attack on Mercado Bitcoin occurred after a separate, widely reported breach involving Binance. Cointelegraph notes that the Mercado Bitcoin incident happened four days following hackers’ theft of about $6.3 billion in crypto from Binance’s hot wallets, a theft attributed by the FBI to North Korean hackers. Binance said it would cover losses using its emergency fund and corporate treasury.
While the circumstances of the Mercado Bitcoin breach are not detailed in the available reporting, the sequence underscores a period of heightened compromise risk for centralized exchanges—particularly through mechanisms that can affect hot wallet custody and operational controls.
Mercado Bitcoin previously estimated that the attack drained $49 million from wallets linked to the exchange. The company’s decision to restore fiat rails first, while keeping crypto transfers paused, reflects a common prioritization during recovery: stabilizing customer cash-out pathways can reduce hardship even as investigators and engineers continue to remediate the underlying technical exposure.
What traders and customers should watch next
For users, the immediate change is operational: Pix deposits and withdrawals in Brazilian reais are set to resume next week, with withdrawals restricted to accounts in their own name. However, anyone relying on crypto inflows or outflows should assume that on-chain access will remain suspended until Mercado Bitcoin provides further updates.
The most important watch items are (1) whether Mercado Bitcoin publishes a clear schedule for subsequent service restorations, (2) how it will handle remaining customer credits beyond fixed-income settlement proceeds, and (3) the eventual timeline—if any—toward restoring crypto deposits and withdrawals. Until those elements are confirmed, customers may be able to access fiat rails but cannot fully resume crypto trading or portfolio management through the platform.
Next week’s Pix restart will test whether Mercado Bitcoin can safely re-enable customer fund movement at scale. The bigger uncertainty remains how long it will take to restore crypto operations—and what controls the exchange will introduce or reinforce to prevent a repeat of the Nov. 2 incident.
