BitMart founder says security team ‘severely understaffed’ after new hack

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMart is operating with an understaffed security team following restructuring, its founder said Wednesday, after confirming a new hack that may be linked to the recent attack on Brazil's exchange Mercado Bitcoin.

In a post on X, BitMart founder Sheldon Xia said threats against employees and alleged retaliation by former staff had complicated efforts to retain technical personnel.

"It took considerable effort and individual conversations to persuade some key technical staff to remain and maintain our core systems," Xia wrote. "However, we continue to face numerous attacks. Our security team is currently severely understaffed, but we are still doing everything we can to safeguard data and assets."

Xia described the amount involved in Monday's hack as small but did not disclose a figure. Blockchain analytics firm Bitquery identified approximately $391,000 in suspicious transfers from wallets mostly associated with BitMart across three blockchains, according to a Wednesday investigation.

Source: Sheldon Xia

Bitquery traced the funds to a wallet also implicated in the more than $46 million Mercado Bitcoin hack on Monday, Nov. 2, supporting Xia's preliminary suspicion of a possible connection between the incidents.

The latest breach comes amid months of uncertainty over BitMart's future. The exchange announced in July that it would end trading on Aug. 26 and cease operations in January 2027. Following the announcement, users reported delayed withdrawals and frozen accounts, raising concerns about access to their funds.

In August, BitMart's Chinese-language X account alleged that employees had gone unpaid and demanded answers about customer funds. The founder dismissed the allegations as fabricated, though it remained unclear who controlled the account at the time.

In a restructuring proposal published Monday, the exchange outlined three potential recovery options for users, including liquid asset distributions and recovery-linked tokens, with plans to seek court approval in December or January.

Cointelegraph contacted BitMart for details about the restructuring, security staffing and latest breach but had not received a response by publication.

Separately, a crypto crime-fighting alliance formed by Tron, Tether and TRM Labs has dissolved amid a wave of major industry hacks, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The T3 Financial Crime Unit, launched in September 2024 and later joined by Binance, struggled with slow responses and poor coordination, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. One source said the group disbanded in late August.

In May, T3 said it had helped freeze more than $450 million in assets linked to suspected criminal activity since its launch in 2024.

The group's dissolution comes amid a wave of major crypto hacks, including last week's $6.3 billion Binance breach, the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.