Mercado Bitcoin began restoring read-only access in phases on Monday, a week after attackers drained an estimated $49 million from the Brazilian crypto exchange. Withdrawals remained suspended, with no date announced for their return.
According to Cointelegraph’s report, published Nov. 9, 2026, at 18:25:29 UTC, an exchange spokesperson said account access would begin at 19:00 UTC, with all accounts expected to be viewable by 21:00 UTC. Customers would see their holdings as recorded on Nov. 2, the day of the hack—not gain the ability to move them.
Account visibility is not withdrawal access
In a video on the exchange’s X account, Fabricio Tota, vice president of new business, said the read-only reopening was intended to reassure customers that their assets remained recorded on the platform. He described the phased reactivation as “a more conservative approach” intended “to ensure our return happens with the utmost security.”
Mercado Bitcoin says it is replacing stolen assets with company funds and that customers will not bear the losses. It pledged to cover all losses on Nov. 4, with its finances bolstered by a $20 million investment from stablecoin issuer Tether in July.
“The vast majority of assets, in fact, nearly all of them, were never even touched by anyone; they were not even involved in the incident,” Tota said. He also said a portion of the stolen funds had been frozen in the hours after the company disclosed the attack.
Those are the exchange’s assurances. The reopening described in the report provided account visibility, not access to withdrawals.
How the wallets were accessed remains unexplained
Blockchain security analysts raised concerns that attackers had accessed addresses and drained funds through standard transfers rather than a smart contract exploit. Analysts also traced some stolen funds to customer deposit addresses.
Mercado Bitcoin had not explained how the attackers gained access to its wallets. Blockchain data company Bitquery found that, as of Nov. 4, wallets it linked to the attacker held most of the stolen funds that had escaped freezes, including 106.07 BTC.
Further recovery steps have no announced dates
The next phase would require users to confirm their registration details before moving funds. Mercado Bitcoin also planned to restore withdrawals through Pix, Brazil’s instant payment system, initially limiting transfers to accounts in each customer’s own name. Tota gave no date for either step.
The exchange, one of Brazil’s largest, told Brazilian magazine Veja in late October that it had more than 4.8 million customers and had processed over 215 billion Brazilian reais ($39 billion) in cumulative transactions.
At the time of the report, the key distinction remained straightforward: customers were beginning to regain the ability to view their recorded balances, while the timetable for accessing those funds remained unresolved.
Original source: Cointelegraph, published Nov. 9, 2026, at 18:25:29 UTC.