BitMart Founder Confirms Hack, Points to Mercado Bitcoin Attackers

BitMart is the latest centralized exchange to suffer a security breach, adding to a string of crypto thefts that have marred the industry over the past year. The exchange’s founder Sheldon Xia confirmed on X that the exchange was hacked on November 2, the same day as Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, saw a $48.6 million exploit. In the tweet reply posted by Xia, he states that the preliminary investigations point to the attack being conducted by the same group behind the Mercado Bitcoin breach. 

The amount that was stolen here was relatively small compared to the scale of several major incidents over the past few months. What Xia said about the state of the exchange’s security during its winding-down process is harder to ignore. 

BitMart Was Hit 53 Minutes Before Mercado Bitcoin 

Onchain data from Bitquery showed that the attacker siphoned roughly $391,000 from BitMart-linked wallets on Base, Arbitrum and Optimism. The outflows began 53 minutes before the attacker moved on to Mercado Bitcoin, which suggests BitMart may well have been the first target. 

Xia’s post, however, did not state whether any user balances were impacted nor whether BitMart plans to cover the losses. 

BitMart’s Security Team is Running Thin After the July Wind-Down 

BitMart announced that it was shutting down its exchange back in July after nine years in the space with full closure of operations set for January 31, 2027. Since the announcement, the exchange has kept only a core team. According to Xia, the reduction in the team size is now under serious pressure. In his post he says that the pressures included doxxing and threats from users as well as retaliation by some former employees while also naming the exchange’s former head of marketing. 

He went on to say that the personal attacks have made it difficult for some of the technical staff to stay and admitted that the security team is “severely understaffed” while attacks keep coming.

An exchange winding down still holds user data and funds, making it a potential target for attackers looking to exploit security gaps. A smaller engineering team can also mean less oversight of hot wallets and slower responses to security incidents. 

Crypto Theft in 2026 Has Passed $8.77 Billion

2026 has been the worst year on record for crypto hacks and thefts. Data from DefiLlama shows that crypto exploits so far this year stands at $8.776 billion, far exceeding any previous year and more than three times the $2.715 billion stolen last year. 

Most of this year’s total traces back to the $6.3 billion Binance hack from last week which is the largest single exploit the industry has ever witnessed. 

This latest hack adds to a growing list of centralized exchange breaches this year, including names like Bitget, Binance and Mercado Bitcoin. If Xia’s read on the attackers is correct, one group hit two exchanges on two different continents on the same day, starting with the one that had the fewest people left to defend it.

Xia says the remaining team is still doing everything it can to safeguard data and assets. He has not said how long BitMart expects to keep its core systems running as the wind-down continues.