Mercadopago and Nubank halted crypto deposits and withdrawals in Latin America on Friday, blaming instability at an external data provider. Social media rumours pointed to an attack on their custodian Paxos, but no official report confirms one.
Two of the largest fintech institutions in Latam announced disruptions to their crypto services on Friday afternoon. Mercadopago, the fintech arm of Argentine e-tailer Mercadolibre, and Nubank, the largest neobank in Latam, both said they were halting deposits and withdrawals of digital assets.
Providers blamed for the pause
Both companies cited "instability in external data providers" as the cause. Mercadopago said the problem stemmed from an incident at a risk monitoring and money laundering prevention provider, and it halted withdrawals but not purchases and sales of crypto assets.
Customers in the Mercadopago app saw a message that offered no timeline for a fix. The company said it is following the situation in real time and will inform users once operations normalize.
Nubank, for its part, said the incident had nothing to do with its internal infrastructure and did not compromise customer security. According to the bank: "All assets and information remain protected." The bank added that its other crypto products continue to function normally.
Paxos rumours remain unconfirmed
The announcement sparked social media rumours of a possible attack on Paxos, which provides custody of crypto assets for the two companies. However, Paxos has not issued any official report saying it was targeted, and its status page shows no incidents registered on November 6.
The pause comes as the crypto community is on high alert after attacks on large exchanges. Last month, Binance experienced an attack in which threat actors stole over $6 billion in cryptocurrency from a hot wallet.
On Monday, Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil's largest cryptocurrency exchange, lost over $46 million in digital assets in a similar attack. At the time, withdrawals there remained suspended.
Source: Bitcoin News
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