Blockstream's Adam Back Faces Scrutiny Amid $320 Million Security Breach

Adam Back is a British cryptographer and co-founder of Blockstream, a company that develops technology and infrastructure for Bitcoin. Several businesses connected to him have faced setbacks, including a $320 million security breach at Blockstream's Liquid Network.

The incident occurred on September 6, 2026, when an attacker exploited a vulnerability in Elements' rangeproof verification cache, allowing the creation of about 4,000 unbacked LBTC. The attacker then moved the unbacked LBTC through Liquid's standard peg-out process, resulting in a withdrawal of about 4,000 BTC from the Liquid reserve.

Blockstream coordinated a halt of Liquid's bridge nodes and deployed an emergency patch the following day. The attacker later returned 3,400 BTC, leaving about 602 BTC outstanding as of Blockstream's September 25 assessment.