Crypto News: Mercado Bitcoin Locks Out Users After $46 Million Hack as Buyers Back Pepeto’s Self Custody Exchange

Crypto holders in Brazil woke on November 2 to an exchange that would not release their money. Mercado Bitcoin halted deposits and withdrawals after Hypernative flagged over $40 million in suspicious transfers across at least 10 blockchains, four days after the $6.3 billion Binance breach. So the crypto news worth reading this week comes down to who holds the keys to a trader’s coins.

While that hack filled the headlines, money kept arriving below them at Pepeto, a presale building an exchange that never takes custody of a user’s coins. A platform holding no keys gives an attacker nothing to drain.

Crypto News: Mercado Bitcoin Freezes Withdrawals After a $46 Million Hack

Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin paused all deposits and withdrawals on November 2 after attackers emptied its hot wallets, and on chain tallies put the loss near $46 million. As of November 3, the exchange, which had 4.5 million users in July, had given no date to reopen.

The response limited the damage: Tether froze more than 4.5 million USDT tied to the attack the same day, and the exchange says no customer lost money. Bitcoin held near $77,000 through the news, so the market read it as one company’s failure.

However, those 4.5 million users cannot reach their coins until the company decides, because a custodial exchange holds the keys for them. CertiK’s Dickson Wu said the attackers moved small sums out of 27,160 customer deposit addresses, which means the attackers reached inside the exchange’s own accounts.

That turns this week’s crypto news into a question of custody. Exchange coins paid their first buyers well as those platforms grew, and Pepeto is an exchange coin at its start, built so a trader’s coins never leave his own wallet.

Why Buyers Want Pepeto After Two Exchange Freezes in One Week

Buyers see an exchange token made for the trader who wants to keep his own keys. Pepeto sells that token in rising stages until its first listing, each priced above the last, and the exchange behind it never takes custody of a coin.

On a custodial exchange, coins sit in the company’s hot wallets, so one breach leaves every account waiting for a reopen date. PepetoSwap, with testing access given privately to its community and large backers, swaps straight from the trader’s own wallet, from MetaMask to Phantom, with no operator holding funds.

Orders route through a private relay by default and the fee is 0.00%, so the coins and the fee both stay with the trader.

A bridge to five chains and a security scanner run by AI are in development beside it, and holders who stake earn 160% APY. SolidProof reviewed both the code and the team.

The raise passed $11.2 million while two exchanges froze customer money, and large wallets that buy during an exchange scare tend to spot a launch before the crowd. Pepeto’s open stage costs $0.0000001904, with the next one priced higher.

The FTX collapse shows that pattern: BTC fell near $15,500 on November 21, 2022, days after FTX failed, and topped $126,000 by October 2025, with its largest gains going to the buyers of that week.

Conclusion

Two exchanges froze customer money within a week, yet Pepeto’s presale kept selling. Bitcoin’s history paid the most to wallets buying during an exchange collapse.

The finding in this week’s crypto news is that coins are safest where no company holds them. Pepeto is building that exchange and is still priced at presale level, each stage ending on its timer or its target.

The holders who bought BTC in the FTX week became the last cycle’s millionaires, and many traders who waited still regret that missed entry.

Pepeto offers the same early moment with a Binance listing expected, and for anyone carrying that regret, it is the clearest second chance the market has shown.

Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale