Hacker Returns Most Stolen Bitcoins After Blockstream Fixes Vulnerability

A major cryptocurrency theft was unexpectedly resolved after the attacker returned most of the stolen assets. The hacker, who used a technical vulnerability to steal approximately 4,000 bitcoins from a Liquid network wallet, worth around $340 million, began giving back the digital assets after engineers addressed the suspected flaw.

The Liquid network, launched in 2018 by cryptocurrency company Blockstream, was temporarily halted on September 6 to investigate the circumstances of the incident. According to Blockstream's former executive Samson Mow, the vulnerability had been fixed on September 7, and the attacker had already returned approximately 3,400 of the 4,000 stolen bitcoins.

About 600 bitcoins remained under the hacker's control, worth around $47 million at the time of the estimate. Liquid's operations will not be restored until additional technical fixes are completed and the security system is strengthened.