BitMart confirms minor breach, points to Mercado Bitcoin attackers
Security & Exploits ·
Exchange founder Sheldon Xia says a small-scale intrusion hit the platform the same day a separate attack struck Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin, with preliminary signs pointing to a shared threat actor.
Sheldon Xia, founder of crypto exchange BitMart, said the platform suffered a minor security breach yesterday and that the team moved quickly to investigate and shore up defenses, according to wublockchain.xyz. Preliminary findings suggest the intrusion may trace back to the same group behind a simultaneous exploit targeting Mercado Bitcoin, a major Brazilian exchange, though no final attribution has been confirmed.
Xia also disclosed that BitMart's security function is running with a bare-bones core team following recent restructuring, leaving the exchange severely understaffed in security operations at the time of the incident. He said the situation has been compounded by doxxing, threats against staff, and retaliatory actions from former employees who departed during the restructuring. Despite the reduced headcount, Xia said the remaining team is working to protect systems, user data, and platform assets.
The disclosure arrives alongside separate reporting in the same cluster describing the breach in similar terms: an attack with minimal losses, with the founder again linking the perpetrators to the Mercado Bitcoin incident. The overlap in timing and the founder's own framing have driven speculation that a single campaign may have targeted multiple exchanges at once, though the material provided does not establish a confirmed technical link between the two breaches beyond Xia's preliminary assessment.
No figures on the scale of losses, affected user accounts, or the specific attack vector have been disclosed. It also remains unclear whether the Mercado Bitcoin exploit and the BitMart breach share exploited infrastructure or are simply coincidental in timing. What is confirmed is that BitMart is operating through the incident with a reduced security staff amid internal turmoil tied to its restructuring, a condition Xia says the remaining team is actively managing. Further details on the investigation's outcome, any formal attribution, and whether user funds were affected have not yet been reported.