Bitcoin · The Register
Hackers drain $320 million in Bitcoin from Liquid Network, claim they're the good guys
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Self-described white hats promise to return 'most' of the 4,000 BTC once the vulnerability is fixed.
Key facts
- The wallet held about 4,200 BTC before the incident, meaning whoever was behind the exploit removed roughly 95 percent of its holdings
- Hackers have drained roughly $320 million in Bitcoin from the federation wallet backing the Liquid Network, while claiming to be the good guys
- Self-described white hats promise to return 'most' of the 4,000 BTC once the vulnerability is fixed
- Liquid said the BTC was withdrawn through SideSwap using its Peg-out Authorization Key, or PAK, but that neither SideSwap's key nor any other PAK appeared to have been compromised
Summary
Hackers have drained roughly $320 million in Bitcoin from the federation wallet backing the Liquid Network, while claiming to be the good guys. Liquid, a Bitcoin sidechain developed by Blockstream and used by exchanges and other financial institutions, said in a post on X on Sunday that around 4,000 BTC had been withdrawn from its federation wallet by what it cautiously described as "purported white-hat hackers. The wallet held about 4,200 BTC before the incident, meaning whoever was behind the exploit removed roughly 95 percent of its holdings. Liquid disabled its bridge nodes while federation members investigate and asked exchanges to suspend L-BTC deposits and withdrawals.