Key Notes
- BitMart’s founder confirmed a November 2 hack and described the undisclosed loss as small.
- He said the exchange’s security team was severely understaffed during restructuring.
- A possible link to the Mercado Bitcoin attack remains under investigation.
BitMart has suffered another hack, founder Sheldon Xia confirmed, as the cryptocurrency exchange struggles to maintain its systems with a reduced team during restructuring. He said the amount involved was small but did not disclose a figure.
In a November 3 post on X, Xia said the attack had occurred the previous day. His preliminary investigation suggested the same group might have targeted Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin on November 2. That attribution remains unconfirmed.
“Yes, we got hacked yesterday too,” Xia wrote, adding that BitMart had moved quickly to investigate and strengthen security. His statement did not identify the compromised assets, explain the entry point or quantify any impact on outstanding customer balances.
A Security Team Under Strain
Xia said restructuring had left BitMart with only a core team and described its security function as “severely understaffed.” He attributed retention difficulties to doxxing, threats and personal attacks, saying technical employees had become reluctant to maintain the systems under those conditions.
He said individual conversations had been needed to persuade key technical staff to remain. BitMart continued to face attacks, he added, while the remaining team worked to safeguard data and assets. These explanations are the founder’s account of the staffing situation.
Transfers Point Toward the Mercado Bitcoin Attack
In a separate blockchain investigation, Bitquery traced roughly $391,000 taken across Base, Arbitrum and Optimism, mostly from wallets it associated with BitMart. The transfers reached an address also used in the Mercado Bitcoin attack.
The firm said the initial activity began 53 minutes before the main Mercado Bitcoin drain. Its analysis also identified a later sweep of 80 tokens from the Base wallet and transfers from approximately 1,400 deposit addresses that evening.
Some wallet identifications rely on Bitquery’s labels and transaction patterns. BitMart has confirmed a breach but has not publicly reconciled those addresses or endorsed the $391,000 estimate. The shared destination supports investigating a connection; it does not establish how either exchange was compromised.
Mercado Bitcoin had already halted transfers after confirming its own security incident. Its assurance that customers would suffer no losses applies to that exchange’s response and should not be read as a commitment from BitMart.
A New Breach During an Existing Recovery Process
The latest attack lands while BitMart is still addressing the financial consequences of its December 2021 hack. In its September 30 recovery proposal, management valued reserves depleted in that earlier incident at $319.5 million using December 4, 2021 prices.
As our earlier BitMart report explained, that historical valuation is separate from a current assessment of its deficit. The proposed options included an upfront distribution from liquid assets or tokens linked to future recoveries and asset sales.
The indicative timetable targeted court applications in December 2026 or January 2027. Xia’s latest disclosure supplies no revised recovery percentage or distribution date, leaving the financial effect of the new breach on that process unresolved.
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