Nubank suspended cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals in its app on Friday, November 6, leaving Brazilian customers unable to move digital assets between NuCripto and external wallets while buying and selling inside the app continued. The bank attributes the outage to a third-party supplier, and Mercado Pago, the fintech arm of MercadoLibre, has posted a similar notice in its own app, hitting two of the largest retail crypto gateways in a country where crypto use has grown steadily.
The pause comes in the same week that Chainalysis, the blockchain analytics firm that Nubank uses to screen crypto transfers, disclosed that attackers had accessed the credentials of every user on its platform. Nubank has not named the supplier behind Friday’s disruption, and neither company has publicly linked the two events.
What Nubank’s App Notice Says About the Crypto Withdrawal Pause
According to the notice reproduced by Metrópoles, the app tells customers that a failure at an external provider responsible for verifying transactions is affecting crypto deposit and withdrawal services. In a statement to the same outlet, Nubank said the problem does not sit within its own infrastructure, that customer assets and information remain protected, and that its other crypto products are operating normally.
The suspended function is the direct transfer feature, which lets customers send and receive crypto to and from outside platforms without first converting to reais. Exame reported that this feature runs on Nubank’s partnership with Chainalysis. When Nubank launched direct transfers, the bank said it was using Chainalysis technology to monitor blockchain addresses and to identify and disrupt suspicious or illicit activity. NuCripto offers trading in bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP and the USDC stablecoin, among other assets.
Chainalysis Took Its KYT and Address Screening Tools Offline This Week
Chainalysis said names, usernames, password hashes, and live tokens for all of its users had been exposed to a malicious actor. After finding further abnormal activity, the company took its login portal offline along with its Reactor and Data Solutions products, its Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) interface and API, and its address screening tools.
Chainalysis said it still has no evidence that investigation data was accessed or that its attribution data was manipulated. The company plans to restore KYT and address screening first, reconnecting customers only after adding their trusted IP addresses to an allowlist.
Mercado Pago Cites an External Data Supplier Too
Mercado Pago’s app also shows crypto deposits and withdrawals as temporarily unavailable and attributes the disruption to instability at an external data supplier. Like Nubank, Mercado Pago has not identified the supplier. The outage reaches into the same market where Ripple rolled out its full crypto banking stack in March.
Mercado Bitcoin Reopens November 9 for Balance Checks Only
The two fintechs halted transfers four days after Mercado Bitcoin, which O Tempo describes as Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, said it had identified and contained a security incident in one of its systems in the early hours of November 2. The exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals as a precaution and took its app offline.
Mercado Bitcoin plans to reopen its website on Monday, November 9, but only to check balances and statements, according to O Tempo. Withdrawals, transfers, trading, and deposits remain suspended, and the exchange has not given dates for the later phases.
Nubank customers can still buy and sell crypto for reais while the transfer feature is down. The bank has not given a timeline for restoring deposits and withdrawals.
Author: Ayanfe Fakunle
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
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