BitMart Founder Confirms Hack, Points to Mercado Bitcoin Attackers

BitMart founder Sheldon Xia confirmed on X that the exchange was hacked on November 2, the same day Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin suffered a $48.6 million exploit, and said preliminary investigations pointed to the same group. Bitquery onchain data showed about $391,000 was drained from BitMart-linked wallets on Base, Arbitrum and Optimism, beginning 53 minutes before the Mercado Bitcoin outflows. BitMart announced in July that it would shut down after nine years, with full closure set for January 31, 2027, and Xia said its security team is badly understaffed; he did not say whether user balances were affected or losses would be covered. Crypto exploits totaled $8.776 billion in 2026, more than triple last year’s $2.715 billion, DefiLlama data shows.