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.